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THE 


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Political  Reformation 


OF 


1884. 


A  Democratic  Campaign  Book. 


THE 

BY   AUTHOKITY  OF 

NATIONAL    DEMOCEATIC 

/ 

COMMITTEE 

N  EW    YORK: 

1884. 


^ 


o.    •*  ■• 
NOV     22    1811 


DEMOCRATIC  PLATFORM. 

The  Democratic  party  of  the  Union,  through  its  representatives  in  National 
Convention  assembled,  recognizes  that,  as  the  nation  grows  older,  new  issues  are 
"born  of  time  and  progress,  and  old  issues  perish.  But  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Democracy,  approved  by  the  united  voice  of  the  people,  remain,  and  will 
ever  remain,  as  the  best  and  only  security  for  the  continuance  of  free  government, 
The  preservation  of  personal  rights  ;  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before  the  law  ; 
the  reserved  rights  of  the  States  ;  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Federal  Government 
within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution,  will  ever  form  the  true  basis  of  our  liberties, 
and  can  never  be  surrendered  without  destroying  that  balance  of  rights  and  powers 
which  enables  a  continent  to  be  developed  in  peace,  and  social  order  to  be  main- 
tained by  means  of  local  self-government. 

But  it  is  indispensable  for  the  practical  application  and  enforcement  of  these 
fundamental  principles,  that  the  Government  should  not  always  be  controlled  by 
one  political  party.  Frequent  change  of  administration  is  as  necessary  as  constant 
recurrence  to  the  popular  will.  Otherwise  abuses  grow,  and  the  Government, 
instead  of  being  carried  on  for  the  general  welfare,  becomes  an  instrumentality  for 
imposing  heavy  burdens  on  the  many  who  are  governed,  for  the  benefit  of  the  few 
who  govern.     Public  servants  thus  become^  arbitrary  rulers. 

This  is  now  the  condition  of  the  country.  Hence  a  change  is  demanded.  The 
Republican  party,  so  far  as  principle  is  concerned,  is  a  reminiscence  ;  in  practice,  it 
is  an  organization  for  enriching  those  who  control  its  machinery.  The  frauds  and 
jobbery  which  have  been  brought  to  light  in  every  department  of  the  Government, 
are  sufficient  to  have  called  for  reform  within  the  Republican  party  ;  yet  those 
in  authority,  made  reckless  by  the  long  possession  of  power,  have  succumbed 
.  to  its  corrupting  influence,  and  have  placed  in  nomination  a  ticket  against  which 
the  independent  portion  of  the  party  are  in  open  revolt, 

Therefore  a  change  is  demanded.  Such  a  change  was  alike  necessary  in  1876, 
but  the  will  of  the  people  was  then  defeated  by  a  fraud  which  can  never  be  for- 
gotten, nor  condoned.  Again,  in  1880,  the  change  demanded  by  the  people  was 
defeated  by  the  lavish  use  of  money  contributed  by  unscrupulous  contractors  and 
shameless  jobbers  who  had  bargained  for  unlawful  profits,  or  for  high  office. 

The  Republican  party  during  its  legal,  its  stolen,  and  its  bought  tenures  of 
power,  has  steadily  decayed  in  moral  character  and  political  capacity. 

Its  platform  promises  are  now  a  list  of  its  past  failures. 
X       It  demands  the  restoration  of  our  Navy.     It  has  squandered  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions to  create  a  navy  that  does  not  exist. 

It  calls  upon  Congress  to  remove  the  burdens  under  which  American  shipping 
has  been  depressed.     It  imposed  and  has  continued  those  burdens. 

It  professes  the  policy  of  reserving  the  public  lands  for  small  holdings  by 
actual  settlers.     It  has  given  away  the  people's  heritage  till  now  a  few  railroads, 


4  DEMOCRATIC    PLATFORM. 

and  non-resident  aliens,  individual  and  corporate,  possess  a  larger  area  than  that  of 
all  our  farms  between  the  two  seas. 

It  professes  a  preference  for  free  institutions.  It  organized1  and  tried  to  legal- 
ize a  control  of  State  elections  by  Federal  troops. 

It  professes  a  desire  to  elevate  labor.  It  has  subjected  American  workingmen 
to  the  competition  of  convict  and  imported  contract  labor. 

It  professes  gratitude  to  all  who  were  disabled,  or  died  in  the  war,  leaving 
widows  and  orphans.  It  left  to  a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  the  first 
effort  to  equalize  both  bounties  and  pensions. 

It  proffers  a  pledge  to  correct  the  irregularities  of  our  tariff.  It  created  and  has 
continued  them.  Its  own  Tariff  Commission  confessed  the  need  of  more  than 
twenty  per  cent,  reduction.  Its  Congress  gave  a  reduction  of  less  than  four  per 
cent. 

It  professes  the  protection  of  American  manufactures.  It  has  subjected  them 
to  an  increasing  flood  of  manufactured  goods,  and  a  hopeless  competition  with 
manufacturing  nations,  not  one  of  which  taxes  raw  materials. 

It  professes  to  protect  all  American  industries.  It  has  impoverished  many  to 
subsidize  a  few. 

It  professes  the  protection  of  American  labor.  It  has  depleted  the  returns  of 
American  agriculture  —an  industry  followed  by  half  our  people. 

It  professes  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law.  Attempting  to  fix  the 
status  of  colored  citizens,  the  acts  of  its  Congress  were  overset  by  the  decisions  of 
its  Courts. 

It  "  accepts  anew  the  duty  of  leading  in  the  work  of  progress  and  reform. " 
Its  caught  criminals  are  permitted  to  escape  through  contrived  delays  or  actual  con- 
nivance in  the  prosecution.  Honeycombed  with  corruption,  outbreaking  expo- 
sures no  longer  shock  its  moral  sense.  Its  honest  members,  its  independent  jour- 
nals, no  longer  maintain  a  successful  contest  for  authority  in  its  counsels  or  a  veto 
upon  bad  nominations. 

That  change  is  necessary  is  proved  by  an  existing  surplus  of  more  than 
$100,000,000,  which  has  yearly  been  collected  from  a  suffering  people.  Unneces- 
sary taxation  is  unjust  taxation.  We  denounce  the  Republican  party  for  having 
failed  to  relieve  the  people  from  crushing  war  taxes  which  have  paralyzed  business, 
crippled  industry,  and  deprived  labor  of  employment  and  of  just  reward. 

The  Democracy  pledges  itself  to  purify  the  administration  from  corruption,  to 
restore  economy,  to  revive  respect  for  law,  and  to  reduce  taxation  to  the  lowest 
limit  consistent  with  due  regard  to  the  preservation  of  the  faith  of  the  Nation  to 
its  creditors  and  pensioners. 

Knowing  full  well,  however,  that  legislation  affecting  the  occupations  of  the 
people  should  be  cautious  and  conservative  in  method,  not  in  advance  of  public 
opinion,  but  responsive  to  its  demands,  the  Democratic  party  is  pledged  to  revise 
the  tariff  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  to  all  interests. 

But  in  making  reduction  in  taxes,  it  is  not  proposed  to  injure  any  domestic  in- 
dustries, but  rather  to  promote  their  healthy  growth.  From  the  foundation  of  this 
Government,  taxes  collected  at  the  Custom  House  have  been  the  chief  source  of 
federal  revenue.  Such  they  must  continue  to  be.  Moreover,  many  indus- 
tries have  come  to  rely  on  legislation  for  a  successful  continuance,  so  that  any 
change  of  law  must  be  at  every  step  regardful  of  the  labor  and  capital  thus  in- 
volved. The  process  of  reform  must  be  subject  in  the  execution  to  this  plain  die- 
tate  of  justice. 

All  taxation  shall  be  limited  to  the  requirements  of  economical  government. 


DEMOCRATIC    PLATFORM.  5 

The  necessary  reduction  in  taxation  can  and  must  be  effected  without  depriving 
American  labor  of  the  ability  to  compete  successfully  with  foreign  labor,  and  with- 
out imposing  lower  rates  of  duty  than  will  be  ample  to  cover  any  increased  cost  of 
production  which  may  exist  in  consequence  of  the  higher  rate  of  wages  prevailing 
in  this  country. 

Sufficient  revenue  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  Federal  Government,  econom- 
ically administered,  including  pensions,  interest,  and  principal  of  the  public  debt, 
can  be  got,  under  our  present  system  of  taxation,  from  custom  house  taxes  on  fewer 
imported  articles,  bearing  heaviest  on  articles  of  luxury,  and  bearing  lightest  on 
articles  of  necessity. 

We  therefore  denounce  the  abuses  of  the  existing  tariff  ;  and  subject  to  the  pre- 
ceding limitations,  we  demand  that  federal  taxation  shall  be  exclusively  for  public 
purposes  and  shall  not  exceed  the  needs  of  the  Government  economically  adminis- 
tered. 

The  system  of  direct  taxation  known  as  the  "  Internal  Revenue,"  is  a  war  tax, 
and  so  long  as  the  law  continues,  the  money  derived  therefrom  should  be  sacredly 
devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  people  from  the  remaining  burdens  of  the  war,  and  be 
made  a  fund  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  care  and  comfort  of  worthy  soldiers 
disabled  in  line  of  duty  in  the  wars  of  the  Republic,  and  for  the  payment  of  such 
pensions  as  Congress  may  from  time  to  time  grant  to  such  soldiers,  a  like  fund  for 
the  sailors  having  been  already  provided  ;  and  any  surplus  should  be  paid  into  the 
treasury. 

We  favor  an  American  continental  policy  based  upon  more  intimate  commercial 
and  political  relations  with  the  fifteen  sister  Republics  of  North,  Central  and  South 
America,  but  entangling  alliances  with  none. 

We  believe  in  honest  money,  the  gold  and  silver  coinage  of  the  Constitution,  and 
a  circulating  medium  convertible  into  such  money  without  loss. 

Asserting  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law,  we  hold  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  Government,  in  its  dealings  with  the  people,  to  mete  out  equal  and  exact 
justice  to  all  citizens  of  whatever  nativity,  race,  color,  or  persuasion — religious  or 
political. 

We  believe  in  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count ;  and  we  recall  to  the  memory  of 
the  people  the  noble  struggle  of  the  Democrats  in  the  Forty-fifth  and  Forty-sixth 
Congresses,  by  which  a  reluctant  Republican  opposition  was  compelled  to  assent 
to  legislation  making  everywhere  illegal  the  presence  of  troops  at  the  polls,  as  the 
conclusive  proof  that  a  Democratic  administration  will  preserve  liberty  with  order. 

The  selection  of  Federal  officers  for  the  Territories  should  be  restricted  to 
citizens  previously  resident  therein. 

We  oppose  sumptuary  laws  which  vex  the  citizen  and  interfere  with  indi- 
vidual liberty ;  we  favor  honest  civil  service  reform  ;  and  the  compensation  of  all 
United  States  officers  by  fixed  salaries  ;  the  separation  of  Church  and  State ;  and 
the  diffusion  of  free  education  by  common  schools,  so  that  every  child  in  the  land 
may  be  taught  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizenship. 

While  we  favor  all  legislation  which  will  tend  to  the  equitable  distribution  of 
property,  to  the  prevention  of  monopoly,  and  to  the  strict  enforcement  of  indi- 
vidual rights  against  corporate  abuses,  we  hold  that  the  welfare  of  society  depends 
upon  a  scrupulous  regard  for  the  rights  of  property  as  defined  by  law. 

We  believe  that  labor  is  best  rewarded  where  it  is  freest  and  most  enlightened. 
It  should  therefore  be  fostered  and  cherished.  We  favor  the  repeal  of  all  laws 
restricting  the  free  action  of  labor,  and  the  enactment  of  laws  by  which  labor 
organizations  may  be  incorporated,  and  of  all  such  legislation  as  will  tend  to  en- 
lighten the  people  as  to  the  true  relations  of  capital  and  labor. 


6  DEMOCRATIC    PLATFORM. 

We  believe  that  the  public  lands  ought,  as  far  as  possible,  to  be  kept  as  home- 
steads for  actual  settlers  ;  that  all  unearned  lands  heretofore  improvidently  granted 
to  railroad  corporations  by  the  action  of  the  Republican  party  should  be  restored 
to  the  public  domain  ;  and  that  no  more  grants  of  land  shall  be  made  to  corpora- 
tions, or  be  allowed  to  fall  into  the  ownership  of  alien  absentees. 

We  are  opposed  to  all  propositions  which  upon  any  pretext  would  convert  the 
General  Government  into  a  machine  for  collecting  taxes  to  be  distributed  among 
the  States,  or  the  citizens  thereof. 

In  reaffirming  the  declaration  of  the  Democratic  platform  of  1856,  that  "the 
liberal  principles  embodied  by  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  sanctioned  in  the  Constitution  which  make  ours  the  land  of  liberty  and  the 
asylum  of  the  oppressed  of  every  nation,  have  ever  been  cardinal  principles  in  the 
Democratic  faith,"  we  nevertheless  do  not  sanction  the  importation  of  foreign 
labor,  or  the  admission  of  servile  races,  unfitted  by  habits,  training,  religion  or 
kindred  for  absorption  into  the  great  body  of  our  people,  or  for  the  citizenship 
which  our  laws  confer.  American  civilization  demands  that  against  the  immi- 
gration or  importation  of  Mongolians  to  these  shores,  our  gates  be  closed. 

The  Democratic  party  insists  that  it  is  the  duty  of  this  Government  to  protect, 
with  equal  fidelity  and  vigilance,  the  rights  of  its  citizens,  native  and  naturalized, 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  to  the  end  that  this  protection  may  be  assured,  United 
States  papers  of  naturalization,  issued  by  courts  of  competent  jurisdiction,  must 
be  respected  by  the  Executive  and  Legislative  departments  of  our  own  Govern- 
ment, and  by  all  foreign  powers. 

It  is  an  imperative  duty  of  this  Government  to  efficiently  protect  all  the  rights 
of  persons  and  property  of  every  American  citizen  in  foreign  lands,  and  demand 
and  enforce  full  reparation  for  any  invasion  thereof. 

An  American  citizen  is  only  responsible  to  his  own  Government  for  any  act 
done  in  his  own  country,  or  under  her  flag,  and  can  only  be  tried  therefor  on  her 
own  soil  and  according  to  her  laws ;  and  no  power  exists  in  this  Government  to 
expatriate  an  American  citizen  to  be  tried  in  any  foreign  land  for  any  such  act. 

This  country  has  never  had  a  well-defined  and  executed  foreign  policy  save 
under  Democratic  administration;  that  policy  has  ever  been,  in  regard  to  foreign 
nations,  so  long  as  they  do  no  act  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  country  or 
hurtful  1o  our  citizens,  to  let  them  alone;  that  as  the  result  of  this  policy  we  recall 
the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  Florida,  California,  and  of  the  adjacent  Mexican  terri- 
tory by  purchase  alone;  and  contrast  these  grand  acquisitions  of  Democratic  states- 
manship with  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  the  sole  fruit  of  a  Republican  administra- 
tion of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  Federal  Government  should  care  for  and  improve  the  Mississippi  river  and 
other  great  waterways  of  the  Republic,  so  as  to  secure  ior  the  interior  States  easy 
and  cheap  transportation  to  tidewater. 

Under  a  long  period  of  Democratic  rule  and  policy,  our  merchant  marine  was 
fast  overtaking  and  on  the  point  of  outstripping  that  of  Great  Britain. 

Under  twenty  years  of  Republican  rule  and  policy,  our  commerce  has  been 
left  to  British  bottoms,  and  almost  has  the  American  flag  been  swept  from  off  the 
high  seas. 

Instead  of  the  Republican  party's  British  policy,  we  demand  for  the  people  of 
the  United  States  an  American  policy. 

Under  Democratic  rule  and  policy,  our  merchants  and  sailors,  flying  the  stars, 
and  stripes  in  every  port,  successfully  searched  out  a  market  for  the  varied  products 
of  American  industry. 


DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM.  7 

Under  a  quarter  century  of  Republican  rule  and  policy,  despite  our  manifest 
advantage  over  all  other  nations  in  high-paid  labor,  favorable  climates  and  teeming 
soils  ;  despite  freedom  of  trade  among  all  these  United  States  ;  despite  their  popu- 
lation by  the  foremost  races  of  men  and  an  annual  immigration  of  the  young, 
thrifty  and  adventurous  of  all  nations  ;  despite  our  freedom  here  from  the  inherited 
burdens  of  life  and  industry  in  old-world  monarchies — their  costly  war  navies, 
their  vast  tax-consuming,  non-producing  standing  armies  ;  despite  twenty  years  of 
peace — that  Republican  rule  and  policy  have  managed  to  surrender  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, along  with  our  commerce,  the  control  of  the  markets  of  the  world. 

Instead  of  the  Republican  party's  British  policy,  we  demand  in  behalf  of  the 
American  Democracy,  an  American  policy. 

Instead  of  the  Republican  party's  discredited  scheme  and  false  pretense  of 
friendship  for  American  labor,  expressed  by  imposing  taxes,  we  demand  in  behalf 
of  the  Democracy,  freedom  for  American  labor  by  reducing  taxes,  to  the  end  that 
these  United  States  may  compete  with  unhindered  powers  for  the  primacy  among 
nations  in  all  the  arts  of  peace  and  fruits  of  liberty. 

With  profound  regret  we  have  been  apprised  by  the  venerable  statesman  through 
whose  person  was  struck  that  blow  at  the  vital  principle  of  republics  (acquiescence 
in  the  will  of  the  majority),  that  he  cannot  permit  us  again  to  place  in  his  hands 
the  leadership  of  the  Democratic  hosts,  for  the  reason  that  the  achievement  of  re- 
form in  the  administration  of  the  Federal  Government  is  an  undertaking  now  too 
heavy  for  his  age  and  failing  strength. 

Rejoicing  that  his  life  has  been  prolonged  until  the  general  judgment  of  our 
fellow-countrymen  is  united  in  the  wish  that  that  wrong  were  righted  in  his  person, 
for  the  Democracy  of  the  United  States  we  offer  to  him  in  his  withdrawal  from 
public  cares  not  only  our  respectful  sympathy  and  esteem,  but  also  that  best  hom- 
age of  freemen,  the  pledge  of  our  devotion  to  the  principles  and  the  cause  now  in- 
separable in  the  history  of  this  Republic  from  the  labors  and  the  name  of  Samuel 
J.  Tilden. 

With  this  statement  of  the  hopes,  principles  and  purposes  of  the  Democratic 
party,  the  great  issue  of  Reform  and  change  in  Administration  is  submitted  to  the 
people  in  calm  confidence  that  the  popular  voice  will  pronounce  in  favor  of  new 
men,  and  new  and  more  favorable  conditions  for  the  growth  of  industry,  the  ex- 
tension of  trade,  the  employment  and  due  reward  of  labor  and  of  capital,  and  the 
general  welfare  of  the  whole  country. 


GOV.   CLEVELAND   NOTIFIED. 


Gov.  Cleveland  Notified. 

The  Committee  on  Notification  appointed  at  Chicago,  July  11th,  to  inform 
Governor  Cleveland  that  he  had  been  nominated  for  President  by  the  Democratic 
National  Convention,  waited  on  the  Governor,  at  the  Executive  Mansion  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  at  Albany,  N,  Y.,  July  29th,  to  give  to  him  the  formal 
notification. 

The  Chairman,  Col.  William  F.  Vilas,  in  so  informing,  said  : 

Address  of  Col.  Vilas. 

Grover  Cleveland,  Governor  op  the  State  of  New  York  :  These 
gentlemen,  my  associates  here  present,  whose  voice  I  am  honored  with  authority 
to  utter,  are  a  committee  appointed  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention  which 
recently  assembled  in  Chicago,  and  charged  with  the  grateful  duty  of  acquainting 
you,  officially  and  in  that  solemn  and  ceremonious  manner  which  the  dignity  and 
importance  of  the  communication  demand,  with  the  interesting  result  of  its 
deliberations,  already  known  to  you  through  the  ordinary  channels  of  news. 

Sir  :  That  august  body,  convened  by  direct  delegation  from  the  Democratic 
people  of  the  several  States  and  Territories  of  the  Republic,  and  deliberating  under 
the  witness  of  the  greatest  assembly  of  freemen  ever  gathered  to  such  a  confer- 
ence, in  forethought  of  the  election  which  the  Constitution  imposes  upon  them  to 
make  during  the  current  year,  have  nominated  you  to  the  people  of  these  United 
States  to  be  their  President  for  the  next  ensuing  term  of  that  great  office,  and  with 
grave  consideration  of  its  exalted  responsibilities  have  confidently  invoked  their 
suffrages  to  invest  you  with  its*  functions.  Through  this  committee  the  Conven- 
tion's high  requirement  is  delivered  that  you  accept  that  candidacy.  This  choice 
carries  with  it  profound  personal  respect  and  admiration,  but  it  has  been  in  no  man- 
ner the  fruit  of  these  sentiments.  The  National  Democracy  seek  a  President,  not  in 
compliment  for  what  the  man  is  or  reward  for  what  he  has  done,  but  in  a  just 
expectation  of  what  he  will  accomplish  as  the  true  servant  of  a  free  people  fit  for 
their  lofty  trust. 

Always  of  momentous  consequence,  they  conceive  the  public  exigency  to  be 
now  of  transcendent  importance,  that  a  laborious  reform  in  adminstration  as  well 
as  legislation  is  imperatively  necessary  to  the  prosperity  and  honor  of  the  republic, 
and  a  competent  Chief  Magistrate  must  be  of  unusual  temper  and  power.  They 
have  observed  with  attention  your  execution  of  the  public  trusts  you  have  held, 
especially  of  that  with  which  you  are  now  so  honorably  invested.  They  place 
their  reliance  for  the  usefulness  of  the  services  they  expect  to  exact  for  the  benefit 
of  the  nation  upon  the  evidence  derived  from  the  services  you  have  performed  for 
the  State  of  New  York.  They  invite  the  electors  to  such  proofs  of  character  and 
competence  to  justify  their  confidence  that  in  the  nation  as  heretofore  in  the 
State  the  public  business  will  be  administered  with  commensurate  intelligence  and 
ability,  with  single-hearted  honesty  and  fidelity,  and  with  a  resolute  and  daring 
fearlessness  which  no  faction,  no  combination,  no  power  of  wealth,  no  mistaken 
clamor  can  dismay  or  qualify. 

In  the  spirit  of  the  wisdom  and  invoking  the  benediction  of  the  divine  Teacher  of 
men,  we  challenge  from  the  sovereignty  of  this  nation,  his  words  in  commenda- 
tion and  ratification  of  our  choice.  ' '  Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant, 
thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many 
things."  In  further  fulfilment  of  our  duty  the  secretary  will  now  present  the 
written  communication  signed  by  the  committee. 


GOV.    CLEVELAND    NOTIFIED. 


At  the  close  of  the  speech  of  Col.  Vilas,  Mr.  Nicholas  M.  Bell,  of  Missouri, 
Secretary  of  the  Committee,  read  the  following  formal  address  prepared  by  the 
committee  : 

Address  of  the  Committee. 

New  York  City,  July  28,  1884. 
To  the  Hon.  Groyer  Cleveland,  of  New  York. 

Sir — In  accordance  with  a  custom  befitting  the  nature  of  the  communication, 
the  undersigned,  representing  the  several  States  and  Territories  of  the  Union,  were 
appointed  a  committee  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention,  which  assembled 
at  Chicago  on  the  8th  day  of  the  current  month,  to  perform  the  pleasing  office, 
which  by  this  means  we  have  the  honor  to  execute,  of  informing  you  of  your  nomi- 
nation as  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  ensuing  election  for  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States.  A  declaration  of  the  principles  upon 
which  the  Democracy  go  before  the  people  with  a  hope  of  establishing  and  main- 
taining them  in  the  Government  was  made  by  the  Convention,  and  an  engrossed 
copy  thereof  is  submitted  in  connection  with  this  communication  for  your  con- 
sideration. We  trust  the  approval  of  your  judgment  will  follow  an  examination 
of  this  expression  of  opinion  and  policy,  and  upon  the  political  controversy  now 
made  up  we  invite  your  acceptance  of  the  exalted  leadership  to  which  you  have 
been  chosen. 

The  election  of  a  President  is  an  event  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  people 
of  America.  Prosperity,  growth,  happiness,  peace  and  liberty  even,  may  depend 
upon  its  wise  ordering.  Your  unanimous  nomination  is  proof  that  the  Democracy 
believe  your  election  will  most  contribute  to  secure  these  great  objects.  We  as- 
sure you  that  in  the  anxious  responsibilities  you  must  assume  as  a  candidate  you 
will  have  the  steadfast  cordial  support  of  the  friends  of  the  cause  you  will  repre- 
sent. And  in  the  execution  of  the  duties  of  the  high  office  which  we  confidently 
expect  from  the  wisdom  of  the  nation  to  be  conferred  upon  you,  you  may  securely 
rely  for  approving  aid  upon  the  patriotism,  honor  and  intelligence  of  this  free 
people.     We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect, 

W.  F.  VILAS,  President. 
Nicholas  M.  Bell,  Secretary. 


D.  P.  Bestor,  Ala. 
Fred  W.  Fordyce,  Ark. 
Niles  Searles,  Cal. 

M.  M.  S.  Waller,  Col. 
T.  M.  Waller,  Conn. 
Geo.  H.  Bates,  Del. 
Attila  Cox,  Ky. 
James  Jeffries,  La. 
C.  H.  Osgood,  Me. 
Geo.  Wells.  Md. 
J.  G.  Abbott,  Mass. 
Daniel  J.  Campau,  Mich. 
Thos.  E.  Heenan,  Minn. 
Chas.  E.  Hooker,  Miss. 
David  R  Francis,  Mo. 
Patrick  Fahy,  Neb. 
Wilson  G.  Lamb,  N.  C. 
Wm.  A.  Qtjarles,  Tenn. 
Geo.  L.  Spear,  Vt. 
Frank  Hereford,  W.  Va. 
J.  T.  Hauser,  Mon. 
M.  S.  McCormick,  Dak. 

E.  D.  Wright,  Dist  of  Col. 


D.  E.  McCarthy,  Nev. 
J.  F.  Cloutman,  N.  H. 
John  P.  Stockton,  N.  J. 
John  C.  Jacobs,  N.  Y. 
G.  H.  Oury,  Ari. 
Ransford  Smith,  Utah. 
John  M.  Selcott,  Idaho. 
W.  D.  Chipley,  Fla. 

M.  P.  Reese,  Ga. 

A.  E.  Stevenson,  111. 

E.  D.  Bannister,  Ind. 
L.  G.  Kinne,  la. 

C.  C.  Burnes,  Kan. 
Theo.  E.  Haynes,  Ohio. 
S.  L.  McArthur,  Ore. 
James  P.  Barr,  Pa. 
David  S.  Baker, Jr.,  R.  I 
Joseph  H.  Earl,  S.  C. 
Joseph  E.  Dwyer,  Texas 
Robert  Beverly,  Va. 
W.  A.  Anderson,  Wis. 
W.  B.  Childers,  N.  M 

D.  B.  Dutro,  W.  T. 


10  GOV.    CLEVELAND    NOTIFIED. 

Gov.  Cleveland's  Reply. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee: 

Your  formal  announcement  does  not  of  course  convey  to  me  the  first  information 
of  the  result  of  the  Convention  lately  held  by  the  Democracy  of  the  nation,  and  yet 
when,  as  I  listen  to  your  message,  I  see  about  me  representatives  from  all  parts  of 
the  land  of  the  great  party  which,  claiming  to  be  the  party  of  the  people,  asks  them 
to  intrust  to  it  the  administration  of  their  government ;  and  when  I  consider  under 
the  influence  of  the  stern  reality  which  the  present  surroundings  create,  that  I  have 
been  chosen  to  represent  the  plans,  purposes  and  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  I 
am  profoundly  impressed  by  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion  and  by  the  responsibility 
of  my  position.  Though  I  gratefully  appreciate  it,  I  do  not  at  this  moment  con- 
gratulate myself  upon  the  distinguished  honor  which  has  been  conferred  upon  me, 
because  my  mind  is  full  of  anxious  desire  to  perform  well  the  part  which  has  been 
assigned  to  me. 

Nor  do  I  at  this  moment  forget  that  the  rights  and  interests  of  more  than  fifty 
millions  of  my  fellow-citizens  are  involved  in  our  efforts  to  gain  Democratic 
supremacy.  This  reflection  presents  to  my  mind  the  consideration  which,  more 
than  all  others,  gives  to  the  action  of  my  party  in  convention  assembled  its  most 
sober  and  serious  aspect.  The  party  and  its  representatives,  which  ask  to  be 
intrusted  at  the  hands  of  the  people  with  the  keeping  of  all  that  concerns  their 
welfare  and  their  safety,  should  only  ask  it  with  the  full  appreciation  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  trust  and  with  a  firm  resolve  to  administer  it  faithfully  and  well. 

I  am  a  Democrat  because  I  believe  that  this  truth  lies  at  the  foundation  of  true 
Democracy.  I  have  kept  the  faith  because  I  believe,  if  rightly  and  fairly  admin- 
istered and  applied,  Democratic  doctrines  and  measures  will  insure  the  happiness, 
contentment  and  prosperity  of  the  people.  If,  in  the  contest  upon  which  we  now 
enter,  we  steadfastly  hold  to  the  underlying  principles  of  our  party  creed,  and  at 
all  times  keep  in  view  the  people's  good,  we  shall  be  strong,  because  we  are  true 
to  ourselves,  and  because  the  plain  and  independent  voters  of  the  land  will  seek  by 
their  suffrages  to  compass  their  release  from  party  tyranny  where  there  should  be 
submission  to  the  popular  will,  and  their  protection  from  party  corruption  where 
there  should  be  devotion  to  the  people's  interests. 

These  thoughts  lend  a  consecration  to  our  cause,  and  we  go  forth,  not  merely 
to  gain  a  partisan  advantage,  but  pledged  to  give  to  those  who  trust  us  the  utmost 
benefits  of  a  pure  and  honest  administration  of  national  affairs.  No  higher  pur 
pose  or  motive  can  stimulate  us  to  supreme  effort  or  urge  us  to  continuous  and 
earnest  labor  an  effective  party  organization.  Let  us  not  fail  in  this,  and  we  may 
confidently  hope  to  reap  the  full  reward  of  patriotic  services  well  performed. 

I  have  thus  called  to  mind  some  simple  truths,  and  trite  though  they  are,  it 
seems  to  me  we  do  well  to  dwell  upon  them  at  this  time.  I  shall  soon,  I  hope, 
signify  in  the  usual  formal  manner  my  acceptance  of  the  nomination  which  has 
been  tendered  to  me.  In  the  mean  time,  I  gladly  greet  you  all  as  co-workers  in  a 
noble  cause. 


GOV.  CLEVELAND'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  11 


Gov.  Cleveland's  Letter  of  Acceptance. 

Albany,  K  Y.,  August  18,  1884. 

Gextlemen. — I  have  received  your  communication  dated  July  28, 1884,  inform- 
ing me  of  my  nomination  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States  by  the 
National  Democratic  Convention  lately  assembled  at  Chicago.  I  accept  the  nomi- 
tation  with  a  grateful  appreciation  of  the  supreme  honor  conferred  and  a  solemn 
sense  of  the  responsibility  which,  in  its  acceptance,  I  assume.  I  have  carefully 
considered  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Convention  and  cordially  approve  the  same. 
So  plain  a  statement  of  democratic  faith  and  the  principles  upon  which  that  party 
appeals  to  the  suffrages  of  the  people  needs  no  supplement  or  explanation. 

Duties  of  the  Executive. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  office  of  President  is  essentially  executive  in 
its  nature.  The  laws  enacted  by  the  legislative  branch  of  the  government  the 
Chief  Executive  is  bound  faithfully  to  enforce.  And  when  the  wisdom  of  the 
political  party  which  selects  one  of  its  members  as  a  nominee  for  that  office  has  out- 
lined its  policy  and  declared  its  principles,  it  seems  to  me  that  nothing  in  the 
character  of  the  office  or  the  necessities  of  the  case  requires  more  from  the  candi- 
date accepting  such  nomination  than  the  suggestion  of  certain  well  known  truths 
so  absolutely  vital  to  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the  nation  that  they  cannot  be  too 
often  recalled  or  too  seriously  enforced. 

Party  Corruption. 

We  proudly  call  ours  a  government  by  the  people.  It  is  not  such  when  a 
class  is  tolerated  which  arrogates  to  itself  the  management  of  public  affairs,  seek- 
ing to  control  the  people  instead  of  representing  them.  Parties  are  the  necessary 
outgrowth  of  our  institutions  ;  but  a  government  is  not  by  the  people  when  one 
party  fastens  its  control  upon  the  country  and  perpetuates  its  power  by  cajoling 
and  betraying  the  people  instead  of  serving  tlem.  A  government  is  not  by  the 
people  when  a  result  which  should  represent  the  intelligent  will  of  free  and  think- 
ing men  is  or  can  be  determined  by  the  shameless  corruption  of  their  suffrages. 

No  Second  Term. 
"When  an  election  to  office  shall  be  the  selection  by  the  voters  of  one  of  their ' 
number  to  assume  for  a  time  a  public  trust  instead  of  his  dedication  to  the  profes- 
sion of  politics  ;  when  the  holders  of  the  ballot,  quickened  by  a  sense  of  duty,  shall 
avenge  truth  betrayed  and  pledges  broken,  and  when  the  suffrage  shall  be  alto- 
gether free  and  uncorrupted,  the  full  realization  of  a  government  by  the  people 
will  be  at  hand.  And  of  the  means  to  this  end,  not  one  would,  in  my  judgment, 
be  more  effective  than  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  disqualifying  the  Presi- 
dent from  re-election.  When  we  consider  the  patronage  of  this  great  office,  the 
allurements  of  power,  the  temptation  to  retain  public  place  once  gained,  and  more 


12  GOV.  CLEVELAND'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

than  all,  the  availability  a  party  finds  in  an  incumbent  whom  a  horde  of  office- 
holders, with  a  zeal  born  of  benefits  received  and  fostered  by  the  hope  of  favors 
yet  to  come,  stand  ready  to  aid  with  money  and  trained  political  service,  we  recog- 
nize in  the  eligibility  of  the  President  for  re-election  a  most  serious  danger  to  that 
calm,  deliberate  and  intelligent  political  action  which  must  characterize  a  govern- 
ment by  the  people. 

Protection  for  Workir\gmen. 

A  true  American  sentiment  recognizes  the  dignity  of  labor  and  the  fact  that 
honor  lies  in  honest  toil.  Contented  labor  is  an  element  of  national  prosperity. 
Ability  to  work  constitutes  the  capital  and  the  wage  of  labor  the  income  of  a  vast 
number  of  our  population,  and  this  interest  should  be  jealously  protected.  Our 
workingmen  are  not  asking  unreasonable  indulgence,  but  as  intelligent  and  manly 
citizens  they  seek  the  same  consideration  which  those  demand  who  have  other 
interests  at  stake.  They  should  receive  their  full  share  of  the  care  and  attention 
of  those  who  make  and  execute  the  laws,  to  the  end  that  the  wants  and  needs  of 
the  employers  and  the  employed  shall  alike  be  subserved  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  the  common  heritage  of  both,  be  advanced.  As  related  to  this  subject, 
while  we  should  not  discourage  the  immigration  of  those  who  come  to  acknowl- 
edge allegiance  to  our  government  and  add  to  our  citizen  population,  yet  as  a 
means  of  protection  to  our  workingmen  a  different  rule  should  prevail  concerning 
those  who,  if  they  come  or  are  brought  to  our  land,  do  not  intend  to  become 
Americans,  but  will  injuriously  compete  with  those  justly  entitled  to  our  field  of 
labor. 

The  Rights  of  Labor. 

In  a  letter  accepting  the  nomination  to  the  office  of  governor,  nearly  two  years 
ago,  I  made  the  following  statement,  to  which  I  have  steadily  adhered  : 

"The  laboring  classes  constitute  the  main  part  of  our  population.  They 
should  be  protected  in  their  efforts  peaceably  to  assert  their  rights  when  endan- 
gered by  aggregated  capital,  and  all  statutes  on  this  subject  should  recognize  the 
care  of  the  State  for  honest  toil,  and  be  framed  with  a  view  of  improving  the  condi- 
tion of  the  workingman." 

A  proper  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  workingman  being  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  integrity  of  our  institutions,  none  of  our  citizens  are  more  inter- 
ested than  they  in  guarding  against  any  corrupting  influences  which  seek  to  per- 
vert the  beneficent  purposes  of  our  government  ;  and  none  should  be  more  watch- 
ful of  the  artful  machinations  of  those  who  allure  them  to  self-inflicted  injury. 

No  Sumptuary  Laws. 

In  a  free  country  the  curtailment  of  the  absolute  rights  of  the  individual 
should  only  be  such  as  is  essential  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  community. 
The  limit  between  the  proper  subjects  of  governmental  control  and  those  which 
'  can  be  more  fittingly  left  to  the  moral  sense  and  self-imposed  restraint  of  the  citi- 
zen should  be  carefully  kept  in  view.  Thus  laws  unnecessarily  interfering  with 
the  habits  and  customs  of  any  of  our  people  which  are  not  offensive  to  the  moral 
sentiments  of  the  civilized  world,  and  which  are  consistent  with  good  citizenship 
and  the  public  welfare,  are  unwise  and  vexatious. 

Commerce. 

The  commerce  of  a  nation,  to  a  great  extent,  determines  its  supremacy.  Cheap 
and  easy  transportation  should  therefore  be  liberally  fostered.     Within  the  limits 


GOV.  CLEVELAND'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANXE.  13 

of  the  Constitution  the  general  government  should  so  improve  and  protect  its  natu- 
ral waterways  as  will  enable  the  producers  of  the  country  to  reach  a  profitable 
market. 

The  Civil  Service. 

The  people  pay  the  wages  of  the  public  employees,  and  they  are  entitled  to  the 
fair  and  honest  work  which  the  money  thus  paid  should  command.  It  is  the  duty 
of  those  intrusted  with  the  management  of  their  affairs  to  see  that  such  public  ser- 
vice is  forthcoming.  The  selection  and  retention  of  subordinates  in  government 
employment  should  depend  upon  their  asjertained  fitness  and  the  value  of  their 
work,  and  they  should  be  neither  expected  nor  allowed  to  do  questionable  party 
service.  The  interests  of  the  people  will  be  better  protected  ;  the  estimate  of  pub- 
lic labor  and  duty  will  be  immensely  improved  ;  public  employment  will  be  open 
to  all  who  can  demonstrate  their  fitness  to  enter  it  ;  the  unseemly  scramble  for 
place  under  the  government,  with  the  consequent  importunity  which  embitters 
official  life,  will  cease ;  and  the  public  departments  will  not  be  filled  with  those 
who  conceive  it  to  be  their  first  duty  to  aid  the  party  to  which  they  owe  their 
places,  instead  of  rendering  patient  and  honest  return  to  the  people. 

Honesty  ar\d  Frugality. 

I  believe  that  the  public  temper  is  such  that  the  voters  of  the  land  are  prepared 
to  support  the  party  which  gives  the  best  promise  of  administering  the  government 
in  the  honest,  simple  and  plain  manner  which  is  consistent  with  its  character  and 
purposes.  They  have  learned  that  mystery  and  concealment  in  the  management 
of  their  affairs  cover  tricks  and  betrayal.  The  statesmanship  they  require  consists 
in  honesty  and  frugality,  a  prompt  response  to  the  needs  of  the  people  as  they  arise, 
and  the  vigilant  protection  of  all  their  varied  interests.  If  I  should  be  called  to 
the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  nation  by  the  suffrages  of  my  fellow-citizens,  I  will 
assume  the  duties  of  that  high  office  with  a  solemn  determination  to  dedicate  every 
effort  to  the  countiy's  good,  and  with  an  humble  reliance  upon  the  favor  and  sup- 
port of  the  Supreme  Being,  who,  I  believe,  will  always  bless  honest  human 
endeavor  in  the  conscientious  discharge  of  public  duty. 

GROYER  CLEVELAND. 

i 
To  Colonel  Willloi  F.  Yilas,  chairman,  and  D.  P.  Bestob,  and  others,  members 

of  the  Notification  Committee  of  the  Democratic  National  Convention. 


14  GOV.    HENDRICKS    NOTIFIED. 


Governor  Hendricks  Notified. 

The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Democratic  National  Convention  to  notify 
the  candidates  visited  Saratoga  July  30th,  where  Governor  Hendricks  was  spend- 
ing a  brief  time,  and  formally  notified  him  of  his  nomination. 

Col.  William  F.  Vilas,  of  Wisconsin,  said  : 

Gov.  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  of  Indiana  :  The  great  national  council  of 
constitutional  Democracy  of  the  Union,  held  at  Chicago  within  this  month  of 
July,  constituted  this  committee  now  before  you  by  selection  from  each  of  the 
several  States  and  Territories  of  our  country,  and  commissioned  it  as  the  official 
voice  of  the  party  to  declare  to  you  in  fitting  terms  and  with  appropriate  cere- 
mony— not  only  in  testimony  of  its  respect  for  your  abilities  and  character,  but  in 
pledge  of  its  consideration  for  the  interests  of  the  nation — that  you  have  been 
nominated  by  that  party  to  the  people  to  be  their  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States  for  the  ensuing  term  of  that  exalted  trust. 

That  honorable  duty  we  have  journeyed  hither  from  every  part  of  this  wide 
land  with  pride  and  pleasure  in  this  manner  to  discharge.  The  interesting  circum- 
stances of  that  nomination  cannot  be  unknown  to  you,  and  could  not  but  be  grati- 
fying to  the  sensibilities  of  any  right-minded  man.  It  was  well  understood  in  that 
convention  that  such  a  distinction  was  even  there  unsought  and  undesired  by  you. 
Yet,  sir,  after  many  others  were  presented  your  name  was  suggested  followed  by 
repeated  seconding.  Every  other  name  was  withdrawn,  and  amid  universal 
acclaim  the  roll-call  responded  to  your  unanimous  choice.  Then,  in  exquisite  enthu- 
siasm the  Convention,  with  the  vast  surrounding  assemblage,  joined  with  cheer 
and  hymn  in  a  prolonged  outbreak  of  gratified  satisfaction.  Sir,  though  Indiana's 
favored  citizens  may  enjoy  with  just  pride  a  peculiar  honor  in  the  distinguished 
services  you  have  rendered  your  party,  your  State  and  the  nation,  and  may  feel  a 
peculiar  attachment  for  the  endearing  qualities  of  your  heart  and  mind,  be  assured 
that  the  Democracy  of  the  nation  participates  in  that  sense  of  honor  and  affection- 
ate regard  in  hardly  a  less  degree.  They  witnessed  your  long  and  honorable  career, 
sometimes  "in  the  faithful  performance  of  high  public  trusts,  sometimes  nobly  con- 
tending as  a  soldier  in  the  ra*nks  for  the  principles  of  constitutional  liberty  ;  but 
always  with  firm  devotion  and  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  interests  and  rights  of  the 
people  ;  and  now  they  confidently  expect  of  your  patriotism  to  yield  all  professional 
wishes  and  undertake  the  labors  of  their  candidate,  as  on  their  part  the  people  can 
securely  repose  upon  the  ripe  experience  of  your  years  and  wisdom  to  most  satis- 
factorily meet  all  the  responsibilities  of  the  high  office  to  which  you  will  be  called. 
The  Convention  felt,  as  the  nation  will  approve,  that  it  was  serving  the  spirit  of  the 
Constitution  when  it  designated  for  a  Vice-President  a  citizen  worthy  and  compe- 
tent to  execute  the  highest  functions  of  the  Chief  Magistracy.  It  is  an  especial 
desire  of  the  Democracy,  sir,  to  see  you  invested  with  this  particular  dignity,  be- 
cause they  know,  as  now  all  the  world  knows,  that  once  you  were  rightfully  given 
title  to  it  by  the  people  and  wrongfully  denied  its  possession  by  the  success  of 
machinations,  of  fraud  and  conspiracy,  and  the  vindication  of  exact  justice  will  be 
most  complete  when  you  shall  be  re-elected ,  now  that  you  may  be  triumphantly 
inaugurated  to  your  rightful  chair  of  office.  This  sentiment  has  given  discretion 
to  the  personal  consideration  and  admiration,  of  the  Democracy  so  abundantly 
manifested  in  the  recent  Convention,  and  will  stir  a  responsive  throb  in  the  hearts 
of  all  good  men.  In  finishing  the  grateful  office  which  the  partial  favor  of  these 
gentlemen,  my  distinguished  associates,  has  assigned  me  permit  us  one  and  all  to 
express  the  highest  esteem  and  regard.  In  a  more  enduring  execution  of  its  duty 
the  committee  have  prepared  and  personally  signed  a  written  communication  which 
the  Secretary  will  now  read. 


GOV.    HENDRICKS    NOTIFIED. 


15 


The  Address  of  the  Committee. 

At  this  point  Mr.  Bell,  the  Secretary,  read  the  following  address  : 

Hon.  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  of  Indiana  : 

Sir  :  The  honor  and  pleasure  of  officially  notifying  you  of  your  nomination 
as  the  candidate  of  the  National  Democracy  in  the  election  about  to  occur  for  the 
office  of  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  whereby  the  Convention  recently 
held  at  Chicago  conferred  upon  the  undersigned  as  a  committee  of  that  body, 
designed  to  represent  in  our  persons  the  several  States  and  Territories.  In 
grateful  performance  of  the  duty,  we  are  entitled  to  express  the  admiration  of  the 
Convention  and  of  the  party  for  your  long  and  well-known  personal  qualities  and 
character  and  for  your  distinguished  public  service  and  maintenance  of  the 
principles  and  objects  which  are  believed  best  calculated  to  promote  the  security, 
happiness  and  welfare  of  the  people,  and  especial  satisfaction  in  the  minds  of  all 
good  men  must  follow  your  election  from  the  reflection  that  in  your  person  the 
testimony  will  be  peculiarly  given  that  the  American  people  are  never  conscious  or 
willing  instruments  of  that  great  public  crime  by  which,  thorough  fraudulent 
returns  and  a  flagrant  disregard  of  truth  and  justice,  others  were  seated  in  those 
high  offices  to  which  Samuel  J.  Tilden  and  yourself  were  rightfully  chosen  in 
1876,  as  well  as  of  the  patriotism  of  your  great  submission,  in  confident  reliance 
upon  the  justice  of  the  people  for  vindication.  An  engrossed  copy  of  the 
declaration  of  principles  and  policy  made  by  the  Convention  is  submitted  with  this 
communication  for  your  examination,  and  we  may  surely  expect  your  loyal 
devotion  in  the  cause  of  our  party  to  accept  the  candidacy  imposed  by  your 
nomination. 


NICHOLAS  M.  BELL,  Secretary. 

D.  B.  Bestor,  Ala. 
Fred.  W.  Fordtce,  Ark. 
Niles  Searles,  Cal. 

M.  M.  S.  Waller,  Col. 
T.  M.  Waller,  Conn. 
Geo.  H.  Bates,  Del. 
Attila  Cox,  Ky. 
James  Jeffries,  La. 
C.  H.  Osgood,  Me. 
Geo.  Wells,  Md. 
J.  G.  Abbott,  Mass. 
Daniel  J.  Campatj,  Mich. 
Thos.  E.  Heenan,  Minn. 
Chas.  E.  Hooker,  Miss. 
David  E.  Francis,  Mo. 
Patrick  Fahy,  Neb. 
Wilson  G.  Lamb,  N.  C. 
Wm.  A.  Quarles,  Tenn. 
Geo.  L.  Spear,  Vt. 
Frank  Hereford,  W.  Va. 
J.  T.  Hauser,  Mon. 
M.  S.  McCormick,  Dak. 

E.  D.  Wright,  Dist.  of  Col. 


W.  F.  VILAS,  President. 


D.  E.  McCarthy,  Nev. 
J.  F.  Cloutman,  N.  H. 
John  P.  Stockton,  N.  J. 
John  C.  Jacobs,  N.  Y. 
G.  H.  Oury,  Ariz. 
Ransford  Smith,  Utah. 
John  M.  Selcott,  Idaho. 
W.  D.  Chipley,  Fla.     . 
M.  P.  Reese,  Ga. 

A.  E.  Stevenson,  111. 

E.  D.  Bannister,  Ind. 
L.  G.  Kinne,  la. 

C.  C.  Burnes,  Kan. 
Theo.  E.  Haynes,  Ohio. 
S.  L.  McArthtjr,  Ore. 
James  P.  Barr,  Pa. 
David  S.  Baker,  Jr.,  R.  I. 
Joseph  H.  Earle,  S.  C. 
Joseph  E.  Dwyer,  Texas. 
Robert  Beverly,  Va. 

W.  A.  Anderson,  Wis. 
W.  B.  Childers,  N.  M. 

D.  B.  Dutro.  W.  T. 


Reply  of  Mr.  Hendricks. 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee  :  I  cannot  realize  that 
a  man  should  ever  stand  in  the  presence  of  a  committee  representing  a  more  august 
body  of  men  than  that  which  you  represent.  In  the  language  of  another,  ' '  The 
Convention  was  large  in  numbers,  august  in  culture  and  patriotic  in  sentiments  ;" 
and  may  I  not  add  to  that  that,  because  of  the  power  and  the  greatness  and  the 
virtues  of  the  party  which  it  represented,  it  was  itself  in  every  respect  a  very 
great  Convention.  (Applause.)  The  delegates  came  from  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories, and  I  believe,  too,  from  the  District  of  Columbia.    (Applause.)    They  came 


16  GOV.    HENDRICKS    NOTIFIED. 

clothed  with  authority  to  express  judgment  and  opinion  upon  all  those  questions 
which  are  not  settled  by  constitutional  law.  For  the  purpose  of  passing  upon  those 
questions  and  selecting  a  ticket  for  the  people  that  Convention  assembled.  They 
decided  upon  the  principles  that  they  would  adopt  as  a  platform.  They  selected 
the  candidates  that  they  would  propose  to  the  party  for  their  support,  and  that 
Convention's  work  was  theirs.  I  have  not  reached  the  period  when  it  is  proper 
for  me  to  consider  the  strength  and  force  of  the  statements  made  in  the  platform. 
It  is  enough  for  me  to  know  that  it  comes  at  your  hands  from  that  Convention 
addressed  to  my  patriotic  devotion  to  the  Democratic  party.  (Applause.)  I  ap- 
preciate the  honor  that  is  done  me.  I  need  not  question  that,  but  at  the  same 
time  that  I  accept  the  honor  from  you  and  from  the  Convention,  I  feel  that  the 
duties  and  the  responsibility  of  the  office  rest  upon  me  also. 

I  know  that  sometimes  it  is  understood  that  this  particular  office,  that  of  Vice- 
President  does  not  involve  much  responsibility,  and  as  a  general  thing  that  is  so. 
But  sometimes  it  comes  to  represent  very  great  responsibilities  and  it  may  be  so  in 
the  near  future,  for  at  this  time  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  stands  almost 
equally  divided  between  the  two  great  parties  and  it  may  be  that  those  two  great 
parties  shall  so  exactly  differ  that  the  Vice-President  of  the  Uhited  States  shall  have 
to  decide  upon  questions  of  law  by  the  exercise  of  the  casting  vote.  (Applause.) 
The  responsibility  would  then  become  very  great.  It  would  not  then  be  the 
responsibility  of  representing  a  State  or  district.  It  would  be  the  responsibility  of 
representing  the  whole  country  and  the  obligation  would  be  to  the  judgment  of 
the  whole  country,  and  that  vote  when  thus  cast  should  be  in  obedience  to  the  just 
expectations  and  requirements  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  It  might  be, 
gentlemen,  that  upon  another  occasion  great  responsibility  would  attach  to  this 
office.  It  might  occur  that  under  circumstances  of  some  difficulty — I  dont  think  it 
will  be  next  election — but  it  may  occur  under  circumstances  of  some  difficulty,  the 
President  of  the  Senate  will  have  to  take  his  part  in  the  counting  of  the  electoral 
vote,  and  allow  me  to  say  that  duty  is  not  to  be  discharged  in  obedience  to  any  set 
of  men  or  to  any  party,  but  in  obedience  to  a  higher  authority.  (Applause.) 
Gentlemen,  you  have  referred  to  the  fact  that  I  am  honored  by  this  nomination  in 
in  a  very  special  degree.  I  accept  the  suggestion  that  in  this  candidacy  I  will 
represent  the  right  of  the  people  to  choose  their  own  rulers.  That  right  that  is  above 
all,  that  lies  beneath  all;  for  if  the  people  are  denied  the  right  to  choose  their  own 
officers  according  to  their  own  judgment,  wThat  shall  become  of  the  rights  of  the 
people  at  all  ?  What  shall  become  of  free  government  if  the  people  select  not  their 
officers  ?  How  shall  they  control  the  laws,  their  administration  and  their  execution  ? 
So  that,  in  suggesting  that  in  this  candidacy  I  represent  that  right  of  the  people  as 
you  have  suggested,  a  great  honor  has  devolved  upon  me  by  the  confidence  of  the 
Convention,  As  soon  as  it  may  be  convenient  and  possible  to  do  so  I  will  address 
you  more  formally  in  respect  to  the  letter  you  have  given  me.  I  thank  you  gentle 
men.     (Applause.) 


EX-GOV.    HENDRICKS'    LETTER   OF   ACCEPTANCE.  17 


Ex- Gov.  Hendricks'  Letter  of  Acceptance. 

Indianapolis,  August  20,  1884. 

Gentlemen — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communica- 
tion notifying  me  of  my  nomination  by  the  Democraiic  Convention  at  Chicago  as 
candidate  for  the  office  of  Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  May  I  repeat  what  I 
said  on  another  occasion — that  it  is  a  nomination  which  I  had  neither  expected  nor 
desired,  and  yet  I  recognize  and  appreciate  the  high  honor  done  me  by  the  Conven- 
tion. The  choice  of  such  a  body,  pronounced  with  such  unusual  unanimity  and 
accompanied  with  so  generous  an  expression  of  esteem  and  confidence,  ought  to  out- 
weigh all  merely  personal  desires  and  preferences  of  my  own.  It  is  with  this  feeling, 
and,  I  trust  also  from  a  deep  sense  of  public  duty,  that  I  now  accept  the  nomination, 
and  shall  abide  the  judgment  of  my  countrymen.  I  have  examined  with  care  the 
declaration  of  principles  adopted  by  the  Convention,  a  copy  of  which  you  submit 
to  me,  and  in  their  sum  and  substance  I  heartily  indorse  and  approve  the  same. 
I  am,  gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant, 

T.  A.  HENDRICKS. 

To  the  Hon.  William  F.  Yllas,   chairman ;  Nicholas  M.  Bell,  secretary,  and 
others  of  the  Committee  of  the  National  Democratic  Convention. 

2 


18  LIFE   OF    GROVER  CLEVELAND. 


Life  of  Grover  Cleveland. 

4 

Grovee  Cleveland,  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  was  born  in  Cald- 
well, Essex  county,  New  Jersey,  on  March  18,  1837.  The  house  in  which  he  was 
born,  a  small  two-story  wooden  building,  is  still  standing.  It  was  the  parsonage 
of  the  Presbyterian  church,  of  which  his  father,  Richard  Cleveland,  at  the  time 
was  pastor. 

The  family  is  of  New  England  origin,  and  for  two  centuries  have  contributed 
to  the  professions  and  to  business,  men  who  have  reflected  honor  on  the  name. 
Aaron  Cleveland,  Governor  Cleveland's  great-great-grandfather,  was  born  in 
Massachusetts  ;  but  subsequently  moved  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  became  an 
intimate  friend  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  at  whose  house  he  died. 

He  left  a  large  family  of  children  who  in  time  married  and  settled  in  different 
parts  of  New  England.  A  grandson  was  one  of  the  small  American  force  ,that 
fought  the  British  at  Bunker  Hill.  He  served  with  gallantry  throughout  the  Revo- 
lution and  was  honorably  discharged  at  its  close  as  a  lieutenant  in  the  Continental 
army.  Another  grandson,  William  Cleveland  (a  son  of  a  second  Aaron  Cleveland, 
who  was  distinguished  as  a  writer  and  member  of  the  Connecticut  legislature)  was 
Grover  Cleveland's  grandfather.  William  Cleveland  became  a  silversmith  in  Nor- 
wich, Connecticut.  He  acquired  by  industry  some  property  and  sent  his  son  Richard 
Cleveland,  the  father  of  Grover  Cleveland,  to  Yale  College,  where  he  graduated  in 
1824.  During  a  year  spent  in  teaching  at  Baltimore,  Maryland,  after  graduation, 
he  met  and  fell  in  love  with  a  Miss  Annie  Neale,  daughter  of  a  wealthy  Baltimore 
book  publisher,  of  Irish  birth.  He  was  earning  his  own  way  in  the  world  at  the 
time  and  was  unable  to  marry  ;  but  in  three  years  he  completed  a  course  of  prep- 
aration for  the  ministry,  secured  a  church  in  Windham,  Connecticut,  and  married 
Annie  Neale.  Subsequently  he  moved  to  Portsmouth,  Virginia,  where  he  preached 
for  nearly  two  years  when  he  was  summoned  to  Caldwell,  New  Jersey,  where  was 
born  Grover  Cleveland.  When  he  was  three  years  old  (1841)  the  family 
moved  to  Fayetteville,  Onondaga  county,  New  York.  Here  Grover 
Cleveland  lived  until  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  the  rugged,  health- 
ful life  of  a  country  boy.  His  frank,  generous  manner  made  him  a  favorite 
among  his  companions,  and  their  respect  was  won  by  the  good  qualities  in  the 
germ  which  his  manhood  developed.  He  attended  the  district  school  of  the  village 
and  was  for  a  short  time  at  the  academy.  His  father,  however,  believed  that  boys 
should  be  taught  to  labor  at  an  early  age,  and  before  he  had  completed  the  course 
of  study  at  the  academy  he  began  to  work  in  the  village  store  at  fifty  dollars  for 
the  first  year,  and  the  promise  of  $100  for  the  second  year.  His  work  was  well 
done  and  the  promised  increase  of  pay  was  granted  in  the  second  year. 

Meanwhile  his  father  and  family  had  moved  to  Clinton,  the  seat  of  Hamilton 
College,  where  his  father  acted  as  agent  to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  preaching  in  the  churches  of  the  vicinity.     Hither  Grover  came  at  his 


LIFE   OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND.  19 

father's  request  shortly  after  the  beginning  of  his  second  year  at  the  Fayettevile 
store,  and  resumed  his  studies  at  the  Clinton  Academy.     After  three  years  spent 
in  this  town,  the  Kev.   Richard  Cleveland  was  called  to  the  village  church  of 
Holland  Patent.     He  had  preached  here  only  a  month  when  he  was  suddenly 
stricken  down  and  died  without  an  hour's  warning.     The  death  of  the  father  left 
the  family  in  straightened  circumstances,  as  Richard  Cleveland  had  spent  all  of 
his  salary  of  $1,000  per  year,  which  was  not  required  for  the  necessary  expenses 
of  living,  upon  the  education  of  his  children,  of  whom  there  were  nine   Grover 
being  the  fifth.     Grover  was  hoping  to  enter  Hamilton  College,  but  the  death  of 
his  father  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  earn  his   own    livelihood.     For  the 
first     year     (1853-4)    he    acted     as      assistant     teacher     and     bookkeeper    in 
the    Institution    for    the    Blind    in    New     York     City,    of     which    the    late 
Augustus   Schell  was  for  many  years  the    patron.      In   the   winter  of  1854  he 
returned  to  Holland  Patent,  where  the  generous  people  of  that  place,  Fayetteville 
and  Clinton,  had  purchased  a  home  for  his  mother,  and  in  the  following  sprino- 
borrowing  twenty-five  dollars,  he  set  out  for  the  West  to  earn  his  living.     Reach- 
ing Buffalo  he  paid  a  hasty  visit  to  an  uncle,  Mr.  Lewis  F.  Allen,  a  well-known 
stock  farmer,  living  at  Black  Rock,  a  few  miles  distant.     He  communicated  his 
plans  to  Mr.  Allen,  who  discouraged  the  idea  of  the  West,  and  finally  induced  the 
enthusiastic  boy  of  seventeen  to  remain  with  him  and  help  him  prepare  a  cata- 
logue of  blooded  short-horned  cattle,  known  as  "  Allen's  American  Herd  Book  " 
a  publication  familiar  to  all  breeders  of  cattle.     For  this  work  young  Cleveland 
was  to  receive  fifty  dollars,  and  his  uncle  further  agreed  to  secure  a  position  for 
him  in  a  lawyer's  office  as  a  clerk  or  copyist.     His  ambition  had  turned  toward 
the  law  ever  since  his  days  in  the  Clinton  Academy,  and  it  was  partially  in  the 
hope  of  finding  some  opportunity  to  begin  the  study  of  the  law  that  he  had  first 
decided  to  go  West.     While  Grover  was  working  on  the  pedigrees  of  cattle  his 
uncle  visited  the  law  offices  of  his  Buffalo  friends  and,  after  several  unsuccessful 
efforts,  secured  a  place  for  Grover  with  Rogers,  Bowen  &  Rogers,  one  of  the  leading 
firms  in  the  county.     He  entered  that  office  accordingly  in  August,  1855.  and  after 
serving  a  few  months  without  pay,  was  paid  four  dollars  a  week — an  amount 
barely  sufficient  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of  his  board  in  the  family  of  a 
fellow-student    in    Buffalo,    with  *  whom     he    took     lodgings.      Shortly    after- 
ward   he    took    a    small    room    in    the    attic    of    the    Southern    Hotel,     then 
a    favorite    stopping    place    with    drovers    and    farmers.       Life    at    this    time 
with  Grover  Cleveland  was  a  stern  battle  with  the  world.     He  took  his  breakfast 
by  candle-light  with  the  drovers,  and  went  at  once  to  the  office  where  the  whole 
day  was  spent  in  work  and  study.     Usually  he  returned  again  at  night  to  resume 
reading  which  had  been  interrupted  by  the  duties  of  the  day.     In  this  manner  the 
foundations  of  legal  knowledge  were  laid  deep  and  firm  at  the  same  time  that 
habits  of  industry  and  close  application  were  acquired.     Gradually  his  employers 
came  to  recognize  the  ability,  trustworthiness  and  capacity  for  hard  work  in  their 
young  employee,  and  by  the  time  that  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  (1859)  he  stood 
high  in  their  confidence.     A  year  later  he  was  made  confidential  and  managing 
clerk,  and  in  the  course  of  three  years  more  his  salary  had  been  raised  to  $1,000. 
In  1863  he  was  appointed  assistant  district  attorney  of  Erie   county  by  the   Dis- 
trict Attorney,  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Torrance,  in  recognition  of  his  abilities  and  his  ser- 
vices to  the  Democratic  party. 

Since  his  first  vote  had  been  cast  in  1858  he  had  been  a  staunch  Democrat,  and 
had  enrolled  himself  among  the  young  men  of  his  ward  to  do  duty  at  the  polls  on 
-election  day.     It  may  be  stated  here  that  until  he  was  chosen  Governor  he  always 


4 


20  LIFE   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

made  it  his  duty,  rain  or  shine,  to  stand  at  the  polls  and  give  out  ballots  to  Demo- 
cratic voters.  During  the  first  year  of  his  term  as  assistant  district  attorney,  the 
Democrats  desired  especially  to  carry  the  board  of  supervisors.  The  old  Second 
ward  in  which  he  lived  was  Republican  ordinarily  by  250  majority,  but  at  the 
urgent  request  of  the  party  Grover  Cleveland  consented  to  be  the  Democratic  can- 
didate for  supervisor,  and  came  within  thirteen  votes  of  an  election.  The  three 
years  spent  in  the  district  attorney's  ofhce  were  devoted  to  assiduous  labor  and 
the  extension  of  his  professional  attainments.  So  vigorously  was  crime  prosecuted 
and  so  efficiently  did  he  administer  the  office  that  he  was  nominated  for  district 
attorney  in  1865,  with  one  voice  by  the  Democrats.  The  Republicans  nominated 
Mr.  Lyman  K.  Bass,  a  particular  friend  of  Cleveland's,  in  order  to  divide  the 
young  men's  vote,  then  beginning  to  be  a  prominent  factor  in  Buffalo 
politics.  The  election  was  closely  contested,  but  Bass  won  by  about 
500  majority,  although  Cleveland  polled  more  than  the  party  vote  in 
all  the  city  wards.  When  he  retired  from  the  position  of  assistant 
district  attorney,  in  January,  1866,  he  formed  a  law  partnership  with 
the  late  Isaac  V.  Yanderpoel,  ex-State  Treasurer,  under  the  firm  name  of  Vander- 
poel  &  Cleveland.  Here  the  bulk  of  the  work  devolved  on  Cleveland's  shoulders, 
and  he  soon  won  a  good  standing  at  the  bar  of  Erie  county.  In  1869  Mr.  Cleve- 
land formed  a  partnership  with  ex-Senator  A.  P.  Laning  and  ex-Assistant  United 
States  District  Attorney  Oscar  Folsom,  under  the  firm  name  of  Laning,  Cleveland 
&  Folsom.  During  these  years  he  began  to  earn  a  moderate  professional  income  • 
but  the  larger  portion  of  it  was  sent  to  his  mother  and  sisters  at  Holland  Patent,  to 
whose  support  he  had  contributed  ever  since  1860. 

In  1870,  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  the  Democracy  and  against  his  own  wishes, 
he  consented  to  be  the  candidate  for  sheriff.  The  election  was  closely  contested, 
but  Mr.  Cleveland  and  the  entire  Democratic  ticket  was  elected  by  a  good 
majority.  The  office  of  sheriff  is  the  most  important  position  in  the  county,  and 
its  duties  were  performed  by  Mr.  Cleveland  in  such  a  manner  as  to  command 
the  approbation  and  confidence  of  the  community,  as  was  strikingly  demonstrated 
a  few  years  later.  At  the  expiration  of  his  official  term  as  sheriff  (January  1, 1874), 
Mr.  Cleveland  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law,  associating  himself  with  the  Hon. 
Lyman  K.  Bass,  his  former  competitor,  and  Mr.  Wilson  S.  Bissell.  The  firm  was 
strong  and  popular,  and  soon  commanded  a  large  and  lucrative  practice.  Ill  health 
forced  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Bass  in  1879,  and  the  firm  became  Cleveland  &  BisselL 
In  1881,  Mr.  George  J.  Sicard  was  added  to  the  firm. 

In  the  autumn  election  of  1881  the  Democrats  of  Buffalo  nominated  Grover 
Cleveland  for  mayor  on  a  platform  pledging  the  party  to  administrative  reform 
and  economy  in  the  expenditures  of  the  city.  He  was  elected  by  a  majority  of 
over  3,500 — the  largest  majority  ever  given  a  candidate  for  mayor — and  the  Demo- 
cratic city  ticket  was  successful,  although  the  Republicans  carried  Buffalo  by 
over  1,000  majority  for  their  State  ticket.  Grover  Cleveland's  administration  as 
mayor  fully  justified  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  the  people  of  Buffalo, 
evidenced  by  the  great  vote  he  received.  Some  of  the  salient  features  of  his  record 
while  in  that  office  are  touched  upon  in  other  columns. 

It  was  his  courageous  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  people  and  his  great  ex- 
ecutive abilities,  which,  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1882,  gave  him  prominence 
before  the  Democracy  of  the  State  as  a  candidate  for  Governor.  The  Democratic 
State  Convention  met  at  Syracuse,  on  September  22,  1882,  and  nominated  Grover 
Cleveland  for  Governor  on  the  third  ballot.  The  campaign  that  followed  was 
auspicious  from  the  beginning  and  terminated  with  a  triumphant  victory.     Cleve- 


LIFE   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  21 

land  was  elected  Governor  by  a  majority  of  192,000,  by  far  tlie  largest  ever  given 
in  this  State,  and  the  largest  ever  given  in  any  State  in  the  Union.  He  was  in- 
augurated on  January  1,  1883. 

Grover  Cleveland  is  in  his  forty-eighth  year.  Physically  he  is  of  a  large  and 
powerful  frame  ;  deliberate  and  firm,  but  not  slow  in  his  motions.  His  manner 
and  tone  of  voice  are  genial  and  agreeable.  He  is  broad  minded  and  liberal  in  his 
habits  of  thought,  and  in  religious  matters  especially  a  man  of  conscience  rather 
than  a  man  of  any  one  sect  or  creed.  All  his  surroundings  and  habits  are  those  of 
Democratic  simplicity.  He  walks  from  the  Executive  Mansion  to  the  Capitol 
every  morning  at  nine  o'clock,  returns  to  lunch  at  one,  and  resumes  work  at  two. 
The  evening  he  usually  devotes  to  work  in  the  Executive  Chamber,  walking  home 
never  earlier  than  eleven  o'clock.  His  life  is  wholly  without  ostentation.  Indeed, 
the  key  to  his  character  may  be  found  in  the  moderation  of  his  wants  and  the 
frugality  of  his  living.  From  such  sources  spring  firmness,  courage,  clear  powers 
of  perception,  and  collected  and  deliberate  judgment  and  action.  In  the  strongest 
and  truest  sense  of  the  words  he  is  a  Jeffersonian  Democrat,  honest,  capable, 
faithful  to  the  Constitution. 


22  PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND. 


Public  Record  of  Grover  Cleveland. 


Corporations. 


The  public  duties  and  rights  of  private  corporations  have  become  the  subject 
of  repeated  consideration  by  Governor  Clevelend  ;  and  his  views  have  been  stated 
in  terms  so  explicit  and  just  as  to  merit  and  receive  the  approval  of  fair-minded 
men  who  have  informed  themselves  as  to  the  particular  grounds  of  his  action. 

In  accepting  the  nomination  for  Governor,  in  October,  1882,  he  thus  defined 
his  position,  from  which  he  has  never  wavered  : 

' '  Corporations  are  created  by  the  law  for  certain  defined  purposes,  and  are 
restricted  in  their  operations  by  specific  limitations.  Acting  within  their  legitimate 
sphere  they  should  be  protected  ;  but  when  by  combination  or  by  the  exercise  of 
unwarranted  power  they  oppress  the  people,  the  same  authority  which  created 
should  restrain  them  and  protect  the  rights  of  the  citizen.  The  law  lately  passed 
for  the  purpose  of  adjusting  the  relations  between  the  people  and  corporations 
should  be  executed  in  good  faith,  with  an  honest  design  to  effectuate  its  objects 
and  with  a  due  regard  for  the  interests  involved." 

Almost  the  first  act  performed  by  him  as  Governor  was  in  fulfillment  of  the 
law  here  referred  to,  the  Railroad  Commission  act,  which  authorized  the  appoint- 
ment of  three  railroad  commissioners,  one  from  each  of  the  two  great  political 
parties,  and  one  upon  the  nomination  of  the  Anti-Monopoly  bodies.  Despite  great 
pressure  to  the  contrary,  and  without  waiting  for  a  proposed  amendment  of  the 
law,  Governor  Cleveland  promptly  nominated  three  commissioners,  in  literal  com- 
pliance with  the  old  law,  accepting  without  hesitation  the  anti-monopoly  candidate, 
Mr.  O'Donnell,  who  now  holds  his  office  under  the  appointment  of  Governor  Cleve- 
land. The  fact  that  the  work  of  the  Railroad  Commission  has  been  so  well  done 
as  not  only  to  justify  its  creation  to  those  even  who  were  originally  doubtful  of  its 
value,  but  also  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  anti-monopoly  sentiment  which  led  to  its 
formation,  is  due  to  the  conscientious  care  with  which  Govenor  Cleveland,  ignor- 
ing every  consideration  but  the  purpose  of  the  law,  selected  the  members  who 
were  to  serve  upon  it. 

Checking  the  Aggression,  of  Corporations. 

Upon  April  2,  1883,  the  Governor,  jealously  regarding  the  interests  of  the  pub- 
lic, as  opposed  to  those  of  corporations,  vetoed  a  bill  tending  to  increase  the  power 
of  telegraph  companies  to  use  the  public  streets,  from  which  veto  message  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  are  made  : 

' '  A  fatal  objection  to  this  bill  is  found  in  the  provision  allowing  the  corpora- 
tions therein  named  to  enter  upon  private  property,  and  erect  and  maintain  their 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  23 

structures  thereon,  without  the  consent  of  the  owner.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is 
taking  private  property,  or  an  easement  therein,  with  very  little  pretext  that  it  is 
for  a  public  use. 

"  If  a  private  corporation  can,  under  authority  of  law,  construct  its  appliances 
and  structures  upon  the  lands  of  the  citizen  without  his  consent,  not  only  for 
the  purpose  of  furnishing  light,  but  in  an  experimental  attempt  to  transmit 
heat  and  power,  the  rights  of  the  people  may  well  be  regarded  as  in  danger  from 
an  undue  license  to  corporate  aggrandizement." 

Upon  June  14,  1884,  despite  great  opposition  from  the  parties  interested,  he 
signed  a  bill  requiring  such  companies  to  put  their  lines  under  ground  on  or  before 
November  1,  1885.  So,  upon  May  29,  1883,  he  vetoed  a  general  street  railroad 
bill,  upon  the  ground  that  its  design  was  ' '  more  to  further  private  and  corporate 
schemes  than  to  furnish  the  citizens  of  the  State  street  railroad  facilities,  under  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  the  Constitution,  and  within  the  limits  therein  fixed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people." 

Upon  April  6,  1883,  in  further  exhibition  of  his  disposition  to  keep  corporations 
within  the  limit  of  the  laws  creating  them,  he  vetoed  a  bill  to  extend  the  time  for 
the  payment  of  the  capital  stock  of  a  corporation,  saying  : 

"  Our  laws  in  relation  to  the  formation  of  corporations  are  extremely  liberal, 
and  those  who  avail  themselves  of  their  provisions  should  be  held  to  strict  com- 
pliance with  their  requirements.  *  *  *  This  company  and  its  stockholders 
have  assumed  for  their  own  benefit  certain  relations  to  the  State,  to  the  public  and 
to  their  creditors,  and  these  relations  should  not  be  disturbed.  If  corporations  are 
to  be  relieved  from  their  defaults  for  the  asking,  their  liability  to  the  people  with 
whom  they  deal  will  soon  become  dangerously  uncertain  and  indefinite." 

•Publicity  of  Corporation  Operations  Required. 

In  his  message  to  the  Legislature  at  the  beginning  of  his  second  year,  the 
Governor,  in  vigorous  language,  called  attention  to  the  duty  of  railroad  corpora- 
tions, and  of  all  others  as  well,  to  truly  inform  the  public  as  to  their  operations. 
In  the  present  season  of  distrust  and  distress,  consequent  upon  a  supposed  failure 
to  discharge  this  duty,  these  words  of  the  Governor  are  admirably  appropriate. 
After  commending  the  requirement  by  the  Railroad  Commissioners  of  quarterly 
reports  from  the  railroad  companies,  he  says  : 

' '  It  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  a  most  valuable  protection  to  the  people  if  other 
large  corporations  were  obliged  to  report  to  some  department  their  transactions  and 
financial  condition. 

' :  The  State  creates  these  corporations  upon  the  theory  that  some  proper  thing 
of  benefit  can  be  better  done  by  them  than  by  private  enterprise,  and  that  the 
aggregation  of  the  funds  of  many  individuals  may  be  thus  profitably  employed. 
They  are  launched  upon  the  public  with  the  seal  of  the  State,  in  some  sense,  upon 
them.  They  are  permitted  to  represent  the  advantages  they  possess  and  the  wealth 
sure  to  follow  from  admission  to  membership.  In  one  hand  is  held  a  charter  from 
the  State,  and  in  the  other  is  proffered  their  stock. 

"  It  is  a  fact,  singular  though  well  established,  that  people  will  pay  their  money 
for  stock  in  a  corporation  engaged  in  enterprises  in  which  they  would  refuse  to 
invest  if  in  private  hands. 

"  It  is  a  grave  question  whether  the  formation  of  these  artificial  bodies  ought 
not  to  be  checked  or  better  regulated,  and  in  some  way  supervised. 

"At  any  rate  they  should  always  be  well  kept  in  hand,  and  the  funds  of  its 
citizens  should  be  protected  by  the  State  which  has  invited  their  investment. 
While  the  stockholders  are  the  owners  of  the  corporate  property,  notoriously  they 
are  oftentimes  completely  in  the  power  of  the  directors  and  managers,  who  acquire 
a  majority  of  the  stock  and  by  this  means  perpetuate  their  control,  using  the  cor- 
porate property  and  franchises  for  their  benefit  and  profit,  regardless  of  the  inter- 
ests and  rights  of  the  minority  of  stockholders.  Immense  salaries  are  paid  to 
officers  ;  transactions  are  consummated  by  which  the  directors  make  money, 
while  the  rank  and  file  among  the  stockholders  lose  it ;  the  honest  investor  waits 


24  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

for  dividends  and  the  directors  grow  rich.  It  is  suspected,  too,  that  large  sums 
are  spent  under  various  disguises  in  efforts  to  influence  legislation. 

"  It  is  not  consistent  to  claim  that  the  citizen  must  protect  himself,  by  refusing 
to  purchase  stock.  The  law  constantly  recognizes  the  fact  that  people  should  be 
defended  from  false  representations  and  from  their  own  folly  and  cupidity.  It 
punishes  obtaining  goods  by  false  pretenses,  gambling  and  lotteries. 

"  It  is  a  hollow  mockery  to  direct  the  owner  of  a  small  amount  of  stock  in  one 
of  these  institutions  to  the  courts.  Under  existing  statutes,  the  law's  delay,  per- 
plexity and  uncertainty  leads  but  to  despair. 

"  The  State  should  either  refuse  to  allow  these  corporations  to  exist  under  its 
authority  and  patronage,  or  acknowledging  their  paternity  and  its  responsibilty, 
should  provide  a  simple,  easy  way  for  its  people,  whose  money  is  invested,  and 
the  public  generally,  to  discover  how  the  funds  of  these  institutions  are  spent,  and 
how  their  affairs  are  Conducted.  It  should  at  the  same  time  provide  a  way  by 
which  the  squandering  or  misuse  of  corporate  funds  would  be  made  good  to  the 
parties  injured  thereby. 

' '  This  might  well  be  accomplished  by  requiring  corporations  to  frequently  file 
reports  made  out  with  the  utmost  detail,  and  which  would  not  allow  lobby  expenses 
to  be  hidden  under  the  pretext  of  legal  services  and  counsel  fees,  accompanied  by 
vouchers  and  sworn  to  by  the  officers  making  them,  showing  particularly  the  debts, 
liabilities,  expenditures  and  property  of  the  corporation.  Let  this  report  be  deliv- 
ered to  some  appropriate  department  or  officer,  who  shall  audit  and  examine  the 
same  ;  provide  that  a  false  oath  to  such  account  shall  be  perjury,  and  make  the 
directors  liable  to  refund  to  the  injured  stockholders  any  expenditure  which  shall 
be  determined  improper  by  the  auditing  authority. 

"  Such  requirements  might  not  be  favorable  to  stock  speculation,  but  they 
would  protect  the  innocent  investors  ;  they  might  make  the  management  of  corpo- 
rations more  troublesome,  but  this  ought  not  to  be  considered  when  the  protection 
of  the  people  is  the  matter  in  hand.  It  would  prevent  corporate  efforts  to  influ- 
ence legislation  ;  the  honestly  conducted  and  strong  corporations  would  have  noth- 
ing to  fear  ;  the  badly  managed  and  weak  ought  to  be  exposed." 

Thus,  it  will  appear  from  the  Governor's  own  words,  with  which  his  actions 
have  been  in  full  accord,  that  he  has  insisted  that  corporations  shall  observe  the 
limitations  of  the  laws  creating  them  ;  that  their  privileges  shall  be  exercised  in  sub- 
ordination to  the  rights  of  the  public  ;  that  their  affairs  shall  be  open  to  public 
scrutiny ;  and  that  to  their  members  and  the  public  alike  they  shall  be  honest 
and  fair. 

The  Five  Gent  Fare  Bill— The  Public  Faith  Must  be  Kept. 

In  this  same  spirit  of  exact  and  equal  justice,  which  has  demanded  of  corpora-, 
tions  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  law  binding  upon  them,  the  Governor  has 
observed  the  express  rights  given  to  them  by  law.  His  principle  has  been  ' '  The 
public  faith  must  be  scrupulously  kept. "  Upon  this  principle  he  undertook  to  act 
in  the  manner  of  the  veto  of  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  "  Five  Cent 
Fare  Bill." 

The  elevated  railroads  of  New  York  City,  under  their  charters,  charged  an  uni- 
form rate  of  fare  of  five  cents  during  certain  of  the  morning  and  evening  hours  in 
which  the  great  body  of  workingmen  went  to  and  from  their  homes,  and  ten  cents 
for  the  rest  of  the  day.  In  1883,  the  Legislature  passed  a  bill  to  make  the  rate  of 
fare  five  cents  throughout  the  day.  This  bill  the  Governor  vetoed,  upon  the 
ground  that  it  involved  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  State.  The  general 
railroad  law,  passed  in  1850,  and  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  declaring  the 
policy  of  the  State,  had  promised  that  the  Legislature  would  not  reduce 
the  rates  of  any  railroad  until  its  reduced  rates  should  produce  a  profit  of  ten 
per  centum  on  the  capital  actually  expended.  The  Governor  declared  that  until 
the  profits  of  these  roads  should  have  been  ascertained  to  exceed  this  limit,  the 
policy  of  the  State  forbade  their  reduction.     A  subsequent  examination  by  the 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND.  25 

Railroad  Commission,  consisting  of  one  Democrat,  one  Republican  and  one  Anti- 
Monopolist,  showed  that  the  earnings  of  the  roads  were  not  such  as  to  justify  the 
proposed  reduction  of  fare,  thus  justifying  the  action  of  the  Governor. 

Another  reason  for  his  veto  was  found  in  the  express  provisions  of  one  of  the 
special  acts  applicable  to  one  of  these  roads.  It  was  therein  provided  that  the 
company  should,  under  bonds,  pledge  itself  to  pay  a  certain  percentage  into  the 
city  treasury,  which  should  ' '  constitute  an  agreement  in  the  nature  of  a  contract 
between  the  city  and  constructing  company,  entitling  the  company  to  the  legalized 
rates  of  fare,  whicli  shall  not  be  changed  without  the  mutual  consent  of  the  parties." 

The  railroad  company  having  made  these  paj^ments  to  the  city,  the  Governor 
considered  that  under  those  terms  of  this  act  there  had  been  constituted  "an  agree- 
ment in  the  nature  of  a  contract'''  between  the  city  and  the  company,  which  the 
State  could  not  in  good  faith  abrogate. 

It  also  appeared  that  still  another  contract  in  writing,  to  the  same  effect,  had 
been  made  between  the  rapid  transit  commissioners  and  the  railroad  companies, 
before  the  roads  were  built  and  to  induce  their  construction,  thus  constituting  a 
third  promise  on  the  part  of  the  public  which  this  bill  proposed  to  break.  The 
Governor  did  not  believe  that  the  people  of  New  York  nor  its  Legislature,  when 
brought-  to  a  knowledge  of  these  facts,  would  desire  this  great  State  to  be  even 
suspected  of  trifling  with  its  obligations,  and  so  in  a  message  so  explicit  as  to  neces- 
sarily reach  great  length,  he  transmitted  to  the  Assembly  the  reasons  why  he  was 
unable  to  approve  the  bill.  The  effect  justified  his  estimate  of  the  honor  of  the 
State  and  of  its  legislators.  *(A  majority  voted  to  sustain  his  veto,  while  two- 
thirds  would  have  been  necessary  to  overrule  it.)  From  every  side  came  expres- 
sions of  commendation  for  the  scrupulous  attention  that  had  been  given  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  public  faith,  and  (though  there  was  dissent  from  the  Governor's 
conclusion  that  a  contract  existed)  none  doubted  but  that  this  being  his  honest 
conclusion,  he  was  by  his  oath  bound  to  disapprove  the  bill,  which  he  did  in  the 
following 


Veto  Message. 

State  of  ] 
Executive  Chamber,  Albany,  March  2,  1883 


State  of  New  York,  ) 


To  the  Assembly  : 

Assembly  bill  No.  58,  entitled  "An  act  to  regulate  the  fare  to  be  charged  and 
regulated  by  persons  or  corporations  operating  elevated  railroads  in  the  City 
of  New  York  "  is  herewith  returned  without  approval. 

This  bill  prohibits  the  collection  or  receipt  of  more  than  five  cents  fare  on  any 
elevated  railroad  in  the  City  of  New  York,  for  any  distance  between  the  Battery 
and  Harlem  river,  and  provides, that  if  any  person  or  corporation  operating  such 
elevated  railroads  shall  charge,  demand,  collect  or  receive  any  higher  rate  of  fare, 
such  person  or  corporation  shall,  in  addition  to  all  other  penalties  imposed  by  law, 
forfeit  and  pay  to  any  person  aggrieved  fifty  dollars  for  each  offense,  to  be  recov- 
ered by  such  person  in  any  court  of  competent  jurisdiction. 

The  importance  of  this  measure  and  the  interest  which  it  has  excited,  has 
impressed  me  with  my  responsibility,  and  led  me  to  examine,  with  as  much  care 
as  has  been  possible,  the  considerations  involved. 

I  am  convinced  that  in  all  cases  the  share  which  falls  upon  the  Executive 
regarding  the  legislation  of  the  State  should  be  in  no  manner  evaded,  but  fairly 
met  by  the  expression  of  his  carefully  guarded  and  unbiased  judgment.  In  his 
conclusion  he  may  err,  but  if  he  has  fairly  and  honestly  acted,  he  has  performed 
his  duty  and  given  to  the  people  of  the  State  his  best  endeavor. 

The  elevated  railroads  in  the  City  of  New  York  are  now  operated  by  the  Man- 
hattan Railway  Company,  as  the  lessee  of  the  New  York  Elevated  Railway  Com- 
pany and  the  Metropolitan  Elevated  Railway  Company. 


26  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

Of  course  whatever  rights  the  lessor  company  have  in  relation  to  the  running 
and  operation  of  their  respective  roads  passed  to  the  Manhattan  Company  under  its 
lease. 

The  New  York  Elevated  Railway  Company  is  the  successor  of  the  West  Side 
and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway  Company. 

The  latter  company  was  formed  under  and  in  pursuance  of  an  act  passed  on  the 
20th  day  of  June^  I860. 

The  third  section  of  that  act  provides  that  companies  formed  under  its  provis- 
ions ' '  may  fix  and  collect  rates  of  fare  on  their  respective  roads,  not  exceeding  five 
cents  for  each  mile,  or  any  fraction  of  a  mile,  for  each  passenger,  and  with  rights 
to  a  maximum  fare  of  ten  cents." 

On  the  22d  day  of  April,  1867,  an  act  was  passed  in  relation  to  this  corporation, 
which  provides  for  the  manner  of  constructing  its  road,  the  eighth  section  of  which 
act  reads  as  follows  : 

' '  The  said  company  shall  be  authorized  to  demand  and  receive  from  each  pas- 
senger within  the  limits  of  the  City  of  New  York  rates  of  fare,  not  exceeding  for 
any  distance  less  than  two  miles  five  cents,  and  for  every  mile  or  fractional  part  of 
a  mile  in  addition  thereto  one  cent ;  provided  that  when  said  railway  is  completed 
and  in  operation  between  Battery  place  and  the  vicinity  of  the  Harlem  river,  the 
said  company  may,  at  its  option,  adopt  a  uniform  rate,  not  exceeding  ten  cents  for 
all  distances  upon  Manhattan  Island,  and  may  also  collect  said  last-named  rate  for 
a  period  of  five  years  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act." 

It  was  further  provided  by  section  9  of  this  act  that  the  said  company  should 
pay  a  sum  not  exceeding  five  per  cent,  of  the  net  income  of  said  railway  from 
passenger  traffic  upon  Manhattan  Island  into  the  treasury  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature  might  thereafter  direct,  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  use  of  the  streets  of  the  city. 

In  1868  a  law  was  passed  supplementary  to  the  act  last  referred  to,  by  which 
the  said  company  was  authorized  to  adopt  such  form  of  motor  as  certain  commis- 
sioners should,  after  due  experiment,  recommend  or'approve. 

Specific  provision  was  made  in  the  act  to  carry  out  section  9  of  the  law  of  1867, 
in  relation  to  the  payment  of  the  five  per  cent,  of  the  net  income  of  the  company 
into  the  treasury  of  the  city. 

Section  3  of  this  act  contains  the  following  provision  :  "It  shall  be  the  duty  of 
the  constructing  company  aforesaid,  before  opening  its  railway  to  public  use,  to 
file  with  the  comptroller  of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  form  to  be  approved  by  the 
mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  its  bond  in  the  penal  sum  of  $100,000,  con- 
ditioned upon  the  true  and  faithful  payment  of  the  revenue  in  amount  and  manner 
specified  in  the  preceding  section,  and  the  payment  thereof  shall  be  the  legal  com- 
pensation in  full  for  the  use  and  occupancy  of  the  streets  by  said  railway  as  pro- 
vided by  law,  and  shall  constitute  an  agreement  in  the  nature  of  a  contract 
between  said  city  and  constructing  company,  entitling  the  latter,  or  its  successors, 
to  the  privileges  and  rates  of  fare  heretofore  or  herein  legalized,  which  shall  not 
be  changed  without  the  mutual  consent  of  the  parties  thereto  as  aforesaid  ;  and 
the  mayor,  on  behalf  of  said  city,  may,  in  case  of  default  in  payments  as  afore- 
said, sue  for  and  collect  at  law  any  arrearages  in  such  payment,  and  the  claims 
of  the  city  therefor  shall  constitute  a  lien  on  the  railway  of  said  company  having 
priority  over  all  others." 

The  use  of  what  are  called  dummy  engines  was  afterwards  authorized  in  the 
operation  of  said  road  by  the  Commissioners  above  referred  to. 

The  New  York  Elevated  Railroad  Company  was  organized  under  the  general 
railroad  law  passed  in  1850,  and  the  laws  amendatory  thereof  and  supplementary 
thereto. 

Within  a  short  time  thereafter  the  last  named  company  became  the  purchaser 
under  a  foreclosure,  and  by  other  transfers,  of  the  railway  and  all  the  rights,  privi- 
leges, easements  and  franchises  of  the  West  Side  and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway 
Company  (the  name  of  which  had  in  the  meantime  been  changed  to  the  West  Side 
Elevated  Patented  Railway  Company  of  New  York  City). 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  where  the  New  York  Elevated  Railway  Company, 
one  of  the  lessors  of  the  Manhattan  Railroad  Company,  has  succeeded  to  all  the 
rights  and  property  of  the  West  Side  and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway  Company. 

By  a  law  passed  on  the  17th  day  of  June,  1875  (the  railway  still  being  unfin- 
ished), it  is  declared  that  the  New  York  Elevated  Railroad  Company,  having 
acquired  by  purchase  under  mortgage  foreclosure  and  sale  and  other  transfer,  all 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  27' 

the  rights,  powers,  privileges  and  franchises  which  were  conferred  upon  the  West 
Side  and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway  Company  by  the  acts  above  referred  to,  is 
"  hereby  confirmed  in  the  possession  and  enjoyments  of  the  said  rights,  powers, 
privileges  and  franchises  as  fully  and  as  large  as  they  were  so  granted  in  and  by 
the  acts  aforesaid  to  the  said  West  Side  and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway  Company. 

The  Court  of  Appeals,  speaking  of  this  law,  uses  the  following  language  : 

'lThe  effect  of  this  act  was  to  secure  to  the  Elevated  Railroad  Company  all  the 
rights,  privileges  and  franchises  of  the  West  Side  and  Yonkers  Patent  Railway 
Company  under  the  purchase  by  and  transfer  to  it." 

By  the  sixth  section  of  this  act,  it  is  provided  that  the  New  York  Elevated 
Railroad  Company  might  demand  and  receive  from  each  passenger  on  its  railroad, 
not  exceeding  ten  cents  for  any  distance  of  five  miles  or  less,  and  with  the  assent 
required  by  section  three  of  the  act  of  1868,  hereinbefore  referred  to,  not  exceeding 
two  cents  for  each  additional  mile  or  fractional  part  thereof. 

Another  act  was  passed  in  1875,  commonly  called  the  Rapid  Transit  Act,  which 
provided  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners,  who,  among  other  things,  were 
authorized  to  fix  and  determine  the  time  within  which  roads  subject  to  the  provi- 
sions of  the  act  should  be  completed,  together  with  the  maximum  rates  to  be  paid 
for  transportation  and  conveyance  over  said  railways  and  the  hours  during  which 
special  cars  should  be  run  at  reduced  rates  of  fare. 

Commissioners  were  duly  appointed  by  the  mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  as 
provided  by  this  act,  who  fixed  and  determined  the  route  of  the  road  of  the  New 
York  Elevated  Railroad  Company,  and  prescribed  with  the  utmost  particularity 
the  manner  of  its  construction  and  therefore  deliberately  agreed  with  said  company 
that  it  should  charge  as  fare  upon  trains  and  cars  other  than  what  were  called  by 
the  parties  commission  trains  and  cars,  for  all  distances  under  five  miles  not  to  ex- 
ceed ten  cents,  and  not  to  exceed  two  cents  for  each  mile  or  fraction  of  a  mile  over 
five  miles,  until  the  fare  should  amount  to  not  exceeding  fifteen  cents  for  a  through 
passenger  from  and  between  the  Battery  and  the  intersection  of  Third  avenue  and 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty -ninth  street,  and  from  and  between  the  Battery  and 
High  Bridge  not  to  exceed  seventeen  cents  for  a  through  passenger,  and  that  for 
the  entire  distance  from  and  between  the  Battery  and  Fifty -ninth  street  the  fare 
should  not  exceed  ten  cents  per  passenger. 

It  was  further  agreed  between  the  said  company  and  commissioners  that  com- 
mission trains  should  be  run  during  certain  hours  in  the  morning  and  evening  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  public  and  the  laboring  classes,  upon  which  the  fare 
should  not  exceed  five  cents  from  and  between  the  Battery  and  Fifty-ninth  street, 
nor  any  greater  sum  for  any  distance  not  exceeding  five  miles  ;  that  it  should  not 
exceed  seven  cents  for  a  through  passenger  from  and  between  the  Battery,  or  any 
point  south  thereof  and  the  Harlem  river,  and  that  such  fare  should  not  exceed 
eight  cents  on  such  commission  cars  and  trains  from  and  between  the  Battery  and 
High  Bridge. 

And  it  was  further  agreed  by  said  company  that  when  the  net  income  of  the 
road,  after  all  expenditures,  taxes,  and  charges  are  paid,  should  amount  to  a  sum 
sufficient  to  pay  exceeding  ten  per  cent,  per  annum  on  the  capital  stock  of  the 
company  ;  that  in  such  case  and  within  six  months  thereafter,  and  so  long  as  said 
net  earnings  amount  to  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  more  than  ten  per  cent,  as  afore- 
said, the  said  company  would  run  commission  trains  on  its  roads  at  all  hours  dur- 
ing which  it  should  be  operated  at  the  rates  of  fare  last  mentioned. 

Having  thus  completed  an  agreement  with  this  company,  the  commissioners 
transmitted  the  same  to  the  mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  accompanied  by  a 
very  congratulatory  report  of  their  proceedings,  whereupon  the  mayor  submitted 
the  same  to  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  by  whom  it  was  approved.  This  was  in  the 
latter  part  of  1875. 

Since  that  time  the  New  York  Elevated  Railroad  Company,  upon  the  faith  of 
the  laws  which  have  been  recited,  and  its  proceedings  with  the  commissioners,  at 
a  very  large  expense,  has  completed  its  road  from  the  Battery  to  Harlem  river,  a 
distance  of  about  ten  miles.  '<■'- 

The  bill  before  me  provides  that  notwithstanding  all  the  statutes  that  have 
been  passed  and  all  that  has  been  done  thereunder,  passengers  shall  be  carried  the 
whole  length  of  this  road  for  five  cents,  a  sum  much  less  than  is  provided  for  in 
any  of  such  statutes  or  stipulated  in  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners. 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  in  the  legislation  and  proceedings  which  I  have  detailed, 
and  in  the  fact  that  pursuant  thereto  the  road  of  the  company  was  constructed  and 


28  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

finished,  there  exists  a  contract  in  favor  of  this  company,  which  is  protected  by 
that  clause  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  which  prohibits  the  passage  of 
a  law  by  any  State  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts. 

But  let  it  be  supposed  that  this  is  not  so,  and  that  neither  of  these  lesser  com- 
panies are  in  any  way  protected  from  interference  with  their  rates  of  fare,  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  they  are  subject  to  all  the  provisions  of  the  general  railroad  act, 
under  which  they  are  both  organized. 

Section  thirty-three  of  that  act  reads  as  follows  : 

"  The  legislature  may,  when  any  such  railroad  shall  be  opened  for  use,  from 
time  to  time  alter  or  reduce  the  rate  of  freight,  fare  or  other  profits  upon  said  road; 
but  the  same  shall  not,  without  the  consent  of  the  company,  be  so  reduced  as  to 
produce  with  said  profits  less  than  ten  per  centum  per  annum  on  the  capital  actu- 
ally expended,  nor  unless  on  an  examination  of  the  amount  received  or  expended, 
to  be  made  by  the  State  Engineer  and  Surveyor,  and  the  Comptroller,  they  shall 
ascertain  that  the  net  income  derived  by  the  company  from  all  sources,  for  the 
year  then  last  past  shall  have  exceeded  an  annual  income  of  ten  per  cent,  upon 
the  capital  of  the  corporation  actually  expended. " 

Even  if  the  State  has  the  power  to  reduce  the  fare  on  these  roads,  it  has  promised 
not  to  do  so  except  under  certain  circumstances  and  after  a  certain  examination. 

I  am  not  satisfied  that  these  circumstances  exist,  and  it  is  conceded  that  no 
such  examination  has  been  made. 

The  constitutional  objections  which  I  have  suggested  to  the  bill  under  con- 
sideration are  not,  I  think,  removed  by  the  claim  that  the  proposed  legislation  is 
in  the  nature  of  an  alteration  of  the  charters  of  these  companies,  and  that  this  is 
permitted  by  the  State  Constitution  and  by  the  provisions  of  some  of  the  laws  to 
which  I  have  referred. 

I  suppose  that  while  the  charters  of  corporations  may  be  altered  or  repealed,  it 
must  be  done  in  subordination  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  is 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  This  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  alteration  of  a 
charter  cannot  be  made  the  pretext  for  the  passage  of  a  law  which  impairs  the 
obligation  of  a  contract.  , 

If  I  am  mistaken  in  supposing  that  there  are  legal  objections  to  this  bill,  there 
is  another  consideration  which  furnishes  to  my  mind  a  sufficient  reason  why  I 
should  not  give  it  my  approval. 

It  seems  to  me  that  to  arbitrarily  reduce  these  fares,  at  this  time  and  under 
existing  circumstances,  involves  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  State,  and  a 
betrayal  of  confidence  which  the  State  has  invited. 

The  fact  is  notorious  that  for  many  years  rapid  transit  was  the  great  need  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  was  of  direct  importance  to  the  citi- 
zens of  the  State.  Projects  which  promised  to  answer  the  people's  wants  in  this 
direction  failed  and  were  abandoned.  The  Legislature,  appreciating  the  situation, 
willingly  passed  statute  after  statute  calculated  to  aid  and  encourge  a  solution  of 
the  problem.  Capital  was  timid,  and  hesitated  to  enter  a  new  field  full  of  risks  and 
dangers.  By  the  promise  of  liberal  fares,  as  will  be  seen  in  all  the  acts  passed  on 
the  subject,  and  through  other  concessions  gladly  made,  capitalists  were  induced 
to  invest  their  money  in  the  enterprise,  and  rapid  transit  but  lately  became  an 
accomplished  fact.  But  much  of  the  risk,  expense  and  burden  attending  the  main- 
tenance of  these  roads  are  yet  unknown  and  threatening.  In  the  meantime,  the 
people  of  the  City  of  ISTew  York  are  receiving  the  full  benefit  of  their  construc- 
tion, a  great  enhancement  of  the  value  of  the  taxable  property  of  the  city  has 
resulted,  and  in  addition  to  taxes,  more  than  $120,000,  being  five  per  cent,  in 
increase,  pursuant  to  the  law  of  1868,  has  been  paid  by  the  companies  into  the 
city  treasury  on  the  faith  that  the  rate  of  fare  agreed  upon  was  secured  to  them. 
I  am  not  aware  that  the  corporations  have,  by  any  default,  forfeited  any  of  their 
rights  ;  and  if  they  have,  the  remedy  is  at  hand  under  existing  laws.  Their  stock 
and  their  bonds  are  held  by  a  large  number  of  citizens,  and  the  income  of  these 
roads  depends  entirely  upon  fares  received  from  passengers.  The  reduction  pro- 
posed is  a  large  one,  and,  it  is  claimed,  will  permit  no  dividends  to  investors.  This 
may  not  be  true,  but  we  should  be  satisfied  it  is  not  before  the  proposed  law  takes 
effect. 

It  is  manifestly  important  that  invested  capital  should  be  protected,  and  that  its 
necessity  and  usefulness  in  the  development  of  enterprises  valuable  to  the  people 
should  be  recognized  by  conservative  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  State  govern- 
ment. 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  29 

But  we  have  especially  in  our  keeping  the  honor  and  good  faith  of  a  great 
State,  and  we  should  see  to  it  that  no  suspicion  attaches,  through  any  act  of  ours, 
to  the  fair  fame  of  the  commonwealth.  The  State  should  not  only  be  strictly 
just,  but  scrupulously  fair,  and  in  its  relations  to  the  citizen  every  legal  and 
moral  obligation  should  be  recognized.  This  can  only  be  done  by  legislating  with- 
out vindictiveness  or  prejudice,  and  with  a  firm  determination  to  deal  justly  and 
fairly  with  those  from  whom  we  exact  obedience. 

I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  this  bill  originated  in  response  to  the 
demand  of  a  large  portion  of  the  people  of  New  York  for  cheaper  rates  of  fare 
between  their  places  of  employment  and  their  homes,  and  I  realize  fully  the  desira- 
bility of  securing  to  them  all  the  privileges  possible,  but  the  experience  of  other 
States  teaches  that  we  must  keep  within  the  limits  of  law  and  good  faith,  lest  in  the 
end  we  bring  upon  the  very  people  we  seek  to  benefit  and  protect  a  hardship  which 
must  surely  follow  when  these  limits  are  ignored. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

Among  many  expressions  in  opposition  to  the  bill  was  a  most  emphatic  com- 
munication from  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  earnestly  asking  for  the 
veto  of  the  bill,  concerning  which,  as  a  measure  particularly  relating  to  the  City  of 
New  York,  the  Mayor  of  that  city  seemed  to  be  particularly  qualified  to  speak. 

The  bill  having  been  vetoed,  letters  of  commendation  and  hearty  approval  were 
received  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  from  men  of  every  shade  of  political  opinion 
and  in  every  walk  of  life. 


The  Railroad  Commission's  Conclusions. 

Subsequently  to  the  veto  of  the  bill  an  examination  of  the  cost  and  earnings  of 
the  elevated  railroads  was  undertaken  by  the  Railroad  Commissioners,  of  whom 
none  reported  a  limitation  of  a  five-cent  fare  for  the  whole  day,  though  one  recom- 
mended a  ■'  judicious  extension  of  the  commission  hours,"  by  adding  three  hours, 
in  which  a  five-cent  fare  should  be  charged,  and  submitted  a  bill  to  that  effect, 
which  was  introduced  in  the  Republican  Legislature  of  1884,  but  was  defeated  by 
a  Republican  Senate,  and  never  reached  Governor  Cleveland. 

The  report  of  the  majority  of  the  Commission  contained  the  conclusion  that  a 
reduction  to  a  five-cent  fare  throughout  the  day  would,  at  the  number  of  pas- 
sengers carried  in  1882,  "reduce  the  gross  income  so  as  to  prevent  the  roads  from 
even  paying  interest  on  their  bonded  debt  in  full.  The  laboring  classes  of  New 
York  are  carried  between  the  hours  of  5.30  and  8.30  a.m.,  and  4.30  and  7.30  p.m.,  at 
five  cents,  upon  trains  which  run  at  intervals  of  forty-five  seconds.  The  reduction 
would  not  so  much  benefit  them,  therefore,  as  it  would  the  class  who  are  better 
able  to  pay  ten  cents  than  the  laborers  are  to  pay  five." 

Thus  did  the  result  show  that  the  Governor  was  justified  in  his  refusal  to 
weaken  respect  for  the  promises  of  the  State,  and  that  in  this  as  in  his  whole 
course  of  action  concerning  corporations,  the  Governor  has  been  controlled  by  no 
partiality  or  favoritism,  but  only  by  a  just  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  State  and 
the  public,  and  the  observance  of  public  faith.    • 

The  suggestion  that  his  action  on  the  Five  Cent  Fare  Bill  was  taken  out  of 
deference  to  the  capitalists  controlling  those  roads  is  quite  absurd  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  all  of  those  most  prominently  named  in  connection  with  them  oppose 
him  and  support  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  presidency. 

Neither  corporations  nor  corporators  have  had  from  him  any  favor  nor  any 
injustice.  The  equal  administration  of  the  laws  has  been  his  aim  and  practice 
with  reference  both  to  them  and  to  the  public. 


30  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

The  Labor  Record. 

Labor  is  organized  in  the  State  of  New  York.  The  chief  representative  body 
of  the  State  is  "  State  Trades  Assembly."  It  is  not  organized  alone  for  political 
purposes,  but  has  for  its  real  purpose  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the 
workingmen  in  all  things.  Its  participation  in  matters  political  is  incidental  to 
the  real  purpose  of  its  existence.  In  seeking  the  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
labor,  it  has  through  committees  for  years  applied  to  the  great  political  organ- 
izations for  assistance  and  consideration.  It  has  received  these  only  from  the 
Democratic  party.  Organization  in  this  branch  of  endeavor  has  had  its  effect,  as 
it  does  everywhere  ;  and  so  it  came  about  that  in  1882,  as  a  result  of  organization, 
and  for  the  first  time,  it  presented  well  defined  contentions,  with  which  it  appeared 
before  the  two  great  parties  of  the  State — the  Democratic  and  the  Republican. 
The  Republican  party  gave  no  heed  whatever  to  its  requests.  The  Democratic 
party  listened ;  and  believing  in  them  embraced  them  in  their  platform  of  that 
year.  Upon  this  platform  Grover  Cleveland  wa&  placed  by  the  Democracy  of  the 
State,  and  upon  it  he  was  elected  to  be  Governor.  His  faithful  adherence  to  the 
pledges  and  promises  of  that  platform  is  known  of  all  men,  and  so  faithful  as  to 
be  regarded  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  politics,  when  candidates  would  regard 
the  obligations  of  formulated  party  utterances. 

The  Labor  Plar\k  of  1882. 

The  plank  relating  to  labor  was  the  twelfth,  and  read  as  follows : 
Twelfth — We  reaffirm  the  policy  always  maintained  by  the  Democratic  party 
that  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  labor  should  be  made  free,  healthful  and 
secure  of  just  remuneration.  That  convict  labor  should  not  come  into  com- 
petition with  the  industry  of  law-abiding  citizens.  That  the  labor  of  children 
should  be  surrounded  with  such  safeguards  as  their  health,  their  rights  of  educa- 
tion and  their  future,  as  useful  members  of  the  community,  demand.  That 
workshops,  whether  large  or  small,  should  be  under  such  sanitary  control  as  will 
insure  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  employed,  and  will'  protect  all  against 
unwholesome  labor  and  surroundings.  That  labor  shall  have  the  same  rights  as 
capital  to,  combine  for  its  own  protection,  and  that  all  legislation  which  cramps 
industry,  or  which  enables  the  powerful  to  oppress  the  weak,  should  be  repealed  ; 
and,  to  promote  the  interests  of  labor,  we  recommend  the  collection  of  statistics 
and  information  respecting  the  improvements,  needs  and  abuses  of  the  various 
branches  of  industry." 

This  plank  Grover  Cleveland  accepted  in  its  entirety,  not  only  in  the  letter, 
h>ut  in  the  spirit,  as  the  subsequent  record  will  show,  in  the  following  words,  which 
are  taken  from  his  letter  of  acceptance  of  the  gubernatorial  nomination,  dated  at 
Buffalo,  October  7,  1882  : 

"  The  platform  of  principles  adopted  by  the  convention  meets  with  my  hearty 
approval.  The  doctrines  therein  enunciated  are  so  distinctly  and  explicitly  stated 
that  their  amplification  seems  scarcely  necessitated.  If  elected  to  the  office  for 
which  I  have  been  nominated  I  shall  endeavor  to  impress  them  upon  my  adminis- 
tration and  make  them  the  policy  of  the  State." 

And  again,  further  on,  he  says  : 

4 '  The  laboring  classes  constitute  the  main  part  of  our  population.  They  should 
be  protected  in  their  efforts  to  assert  their  rights  when  endangered  by  aggregated 
capital,  and  all  statutes  on  this  subject  should  recognize  the  care  of  the  State  for 
honest  toil,  and  be  framed  with  a  view  of  improving  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ingman. " 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND.  31 

It  is  now  a  matter  of  history  that  this  pledge  has  been  most  faithfully  fulfilled. 

Having  thus  found  the  Democratic  party  and  its  candidate  willing  to  accept 
these  contentions  as  their  own,  the  representative  laboring  men  proceeded  to  put 
them  into  effect  by  drafting  bills  to  present  to  the  Legislature.  Thus  in  an  orderly 
and  efficient  way,  in  fact  the  only  way  in  which  to  put  them  into  effect,  these  con- 
tentions were  formulated  into  measures.  Four  bills  were  introduced  in  the 
Legislature  of  1883,  the  first  year  of  Governor  Cleveland's  term. 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 

One  was  the  bill  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
This  the  labor  representatives  regarded  as  by  far  the  most  important  of  all  the 
measures  they  had  presented.  So  soon  as  the  bill  reached  him,  the  Governor 
showed  his  intention  of  keeping  his  pledges  by  signing  it, 

Tenement  House  Cigar  Bill. 

Another  was  the  bill  prohibiting  the  manufacture  of  cigars  in  tenement  houses, 
which  the  Governor  promptly  signed.  This  law  was  subsequently  declared  defec- 
tive in  title,  and  therefore  unconstitutional,  by  the  courts  ;  another  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Legislature  of  1884,  and  the  defect  in  the  title  having  been  remedied, 
was  passed  and  the  Governor  signed  it  again.  It  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  reck- 
lessness and  audacity  which  has  inspired  the  effort  to  mislead  the  public  mind  as 
to  the  Governor's  attitude  toward  measures  of  this  character,  to  cite  the  fact  in 
this  place  that  it  has  been  repeatedly  and  persistently  asserted  that  the  Tenement 
House  Cigar  bill  was  vetoed  by  him, — a  statement  absolutely  the  reverse  of  true — 
but  not  more  so  than  the  other  charges  with  which  the  opposition,  valid  reasons 
failing,  has  endeavored  to  sustain  itself. 

The  Hatters'  Bill. 

Another  was  the  bill  prohibiting  the  manufacture  of  woolen  hats  in  the   State 

prisons,  penitentiaries  and  reformatories   of  the  State,   and  this   was   promptly 

signed  by  the  Governor.     For  several  years  ineffectual  efforts  had  been  made  to 

pass  this  bill. 

Convict  Labor  Bill. 

The  fourth  and  last  of  the  series  of  the  labor  bills  for  1883  was  the  bill  to 
abolish  convict  labor  in  State  prisons.  This  bill  met  with  very  great  opposition 
from  the  Republicans  of  the  Legislature,  and  Thomas  F.  Grady,  then  a  Senator 
from  the  City  of  New  York,  introduced  a  bill  providing  that  the  question  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  voters  of  the  State.  Thus  it  was  that  the  bill  never  reached  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  no  opportunity  was  afforded  him  to  act  upon  it  during  the  session  of 
1883. 

The  question  was  submitted  to  the  voters  in  November,  1883,  and  decided  by  a 
very  large  majority  against  the  continuance  of  convict  prison  labor.  Thus  it  is 
shown  that  every  bill  relating  to  labor  which  reached  the  Governor  in  1883  he 
promptly  signed. 

Returning  to  the  Effort. 

In  1884  the  labor  representatives,  encouraged  by  their  successes  in  1883,  again 
presented  themselves  before  the  Legislature  with  further  demands  formulated  into 
measures  as  follows  : 

The  tenement  house  cigar  bill,  to  which  reference  was  made  above.  This  was 
made  necessary  by  the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  that  the  bill  was  uncon- 
stitutional in  that  its  title  was  defective.  The  defect  having  been  remedied, 
the  Governor  signed  it. 


32  PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

Convict    Labor  Agair\. 

The  bill  prohibiting  the  employment  of  convicts  in  State  prisons  on  contract 
labor.  This  was  popularly  known  as  the  "  Comstock  "  bill,  and  provided  no  sub- 
stitute for  the  labor  the  convicts  were  employed  in.  There  were  several  defects  in 
the  bill  as  it  reached  the  Governor  which  would  have  made  it  inoperative,  but  the 
Governor  called  in  Mr.  Thayer,  the  President  of  the  State  Trades'  Assembly,  and 
pointing  out  the  defects,  among  which  was  that  penitentiaries  were  excepted  from 
the  provisions  of  the  bill,  suggested  a  recall  of  the  bill  to  correct  it,  which  was  done, 
and  then  it  was  signed.  Had  not  the  Governor  been  the  friend  of  labor  he  is,  he 
could  have  defeated  its  object  by  signing  it  as  it  came  to  him.  Subsequently,  a 
bill  known  as  the  Howe  Commission  bill  passed  the  Legislature,  providing  for  the 
appointment  of  five  commissioners,  to  investigate  and  report  by  May  first  some 
suitable  system  for  the  employment  of  convicts.  After  an  investigation  of  only  a 
few  days  they  reported  that  they  could  not  make  a  report  within  the  specified  time. 
A  bill  was  then  passed  extending  the  time  until  January  1,  1885.  This  the  Gover- 
nor vetoed,  and  in  forcible  terms,  declaring  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Legislature 
to  provide  at  that  session  some  substitute.  The  Republican  Legislature  dallied  with 
the  question,  and  let  it  die,  and  the  fact  is,  that  as  the  contracts  under  which  the 
convicts  labor  now  expire,  the  convicts  will  br  without  work,  the  responsibility  of 
which  must  rest  upon  the  Republican  Legislature.  • 

Child  Contract  Labor  Bill. 

One  of  the  bills  introduced  in  the  interest  of  labor  this  year  was  that  making  it 
unlawful  for  the  trustees  or  managers  of  any  house  of  refuge,  reformatory  or  other 
correctional  institution,  to  contract,  hire  or  let  the  service  or  labor  of  any  child 
committed  to  or  an  inmate  of  such  institutions.  It  was  passed  and  signed  by  the 
Governor.  This  is  another  of  the  bills  which  it  has  been  falsely  stated  the 
Governor  vetoed,  and  it  furnishes  a  further  illustration  of  the  utter  recklessness  of 
those  who  have  sought  to  arouse  hostility  upon  false  grounds.  It  may  well  be 
claimed  that  the  fact  that  these  charges,  absolutely  false  as  they  are,  have  to  be 
resorted  to  by  the  Governor's  opponents,  offers  conclusive  proof  that  there  are  no 
good  grounds  on  which  such  opposition  can  be  based. 

Mechanics'   Lien  Law. 

One  of  the  bills  introduced  was  that  one  known  as  the  Mechanics'  Lien  Law. 
This  bill,  which  was  a  local  act  applying  only  to  Kings  and  Queens  counties  and 
the  cities  of  the  State,  was  vetoed  by  the  Governor,  and,  as  an  examination  shows, 
clearly  in  the  interest  of  workingmen.  Instead  of  giving  the  mechanic  the  first 
lien,  as  was  the  object  of  the  bill,  by  an  oversight  in  the  drafting  of  it,  it  gave  to 
all  parties  having  claims,  whether  mechanics  or  not,  the  first  lien,  thus  reducing 
the  mechanics  to  a  level  with  all  claimants.  Moreover  it  repealed  in  distinct  terms 
a  number  of  mechanics'  lien  laws  already  on  the  statute  books.  To  make  it  a  law 
was  to  sacrifice  many  real  and  substantial  advantages  already  possessed  by 
mechanics. 

The  bill  largely  increased  the  cost  of  enforcing  liens  and  would  have  chiefly 
benefited  lawyers. 

Conductors'  and  Drivers'  Bill. 

Since  the  year  1870  the  Laws  of  the  State  of  New  York  have  declared  that 
' '  eight  hours  shall  constitute  a  legal  day's  work  for  all  classes  of  mechanics,  work- 
' '  ingmen  and  laborers,  excepting  those  engaged  in  farm  and  domestic  labor,  but 
"  overwork  for  an  extra  compensation,  by  agreement  between  laborer  and  employer 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  33 

"is  hereby  permitted."  Though  the  title  and  subsequent  sections  of  the  law 
limited  this  provision  to  public  works,  its  effect  has  been  generally  to  establish  an 
eight  hour  system  in  the  State  of  New  York.  It  has  gone  as  far  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  purpose  as  any  law  could  by  way  of  recommendation. 

Early  in  the  session  of  1884  there  was  introduced  in  the  Assembly  a  bill  in  the 
following  terms  : 

Section  1.  On  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any 
officer  or  agent  of  any  railroad  corporation  in  any  of  the  cities  of  this  State,  whose 
cars  are  drawn  by  horses,  to  exact  from  conductors  or  drivers  employed  by 
them  more  than  twelve  hours'  labor  for  a  day's  work,  and  such  corporations 
shall,  out  of  said  twelve  hours'  labor,  allow  such  conductors  and  drivers  a  reason- 
able time  to  obtain  meals. 

§  2.  Any  officer  or  agent  of  any  such  corporation  who  shall  violate  or  other- 
wise evade  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, 
punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  three  hundred  dollars  or  imprisonment  not  to 
exceed  six  months,  or  both  fine  and  imprisonment  for  each  offense. 

§  3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

This  bill  passed  the  Assembly  promptly,  but  going  to  the  Senate  was  there 
ignored  until  the  last  day  but  one  of  the  session,  when  it  was  at  first  defeated,  but 
upon  a  reconsideration,  it  was  adopted  by  a  bare  constitutional  majority. 

Owing  to  this  delay  by  the  Legislature,  the  bill  reached  the  Governor  after  the 
final  adjournment,  when  all  opportunity  for  amendment  was  gone,  and  when  the 
bill  had  to  be  considered  upon  its  merits  as  a  piece  of  legislation,  according  to  its 
actual  terms,  and  not  as  it  might  have  been  had  more  care  been  taken  in  expressing 
the  wishes  of  its  promoters. 

Unless  effective  as  a  law,  it  would  have  been  worse  than  useless  as  a  mere 
recommendation  upon  the  statute  books,  for  it  would  have  recommended  a  reduc- 
tion only  to  twelve  hours  for  a  day's  work  while  the  statute  of  1870  had  already  set 
up  a  standard  of  eight  hours  A  scrutiny  of  the  provisions  of  the  bill  will  show 
that  it  would  not  have  been  effective  as  a  law,  and  that  it  would  have  tended  to 
impair  rather  than  increase  the  advisory  effect  of  the  eight-hour  law  of  1870. 

Upon  a  careful  consideration  of  the  terms  of  this  bill,  it  will  be  perceived  that  it 
forbade  only  one  thing — the  exaction  of  more  than  twelve  hours'  labor  for  a  day's 
work  from  conductors  or  drivers  of  cars  drawn  by  horses. 

Every  one  must  concede  that  this  would  have  been  construed  by  the  courts  as  a 
penal  statute.  Nothing  could  be  added  to  its  express  provisions,  nor  could  they  be 
enlarged  by  implication. 

Thus  construed  the  bill  was  meaningless,  and  would  have  accomplished  nothing 
as  to  any  case  in  which  it  should  not  be  shown  : 

1.  That  more  than  twelve  hours'  labor  had  been  exacted. 

2.  That  it  had  been  so  exacted  for  a  day's  work. 

3.  The  cars  were  drawn  by  horses. 

4.  That  the  offense  was  committed  in  a  city. 

There  was  in  the  bill : 

1.  Nothing  to  prevent  a  voluntary  agreement  between  the  parties  to  work  more 
than  twelve  hours,  thus  inviting  litigation  in  each  case  as  to  whether  the  work  had 
been  "  exacted  "  or  voluntarily  rendered. 

2.  No  applicability  to  cases  where  service  was  rendered  not  by  "  day's  work  " 
but  by  the  trip,  the  fact  being  that  in  almost  all  cases  men  are  paid  by  the  trip,  a 
practice  which  would  have  become  universal  had  the  bill  become  a  law. 

3.  Nothing  to  protect  conductors  of  cars  drawn  by  steam  or  by  mules,  or 
drivers  of  stages. 

3 


34  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

4.  Nothing  to  cover  cases  of  drivers  or  conductors  of  cars,  except  within  the 
limits  of  incorporated  cities. 

Few  bills  have  been  so  crude  or  so  insufficient  to  substantially  attain  the  osten- 
sible purpose  of  their  introduction,  and  even  a  less  kind-hearted  man  than  Gov- 
ernor Cleveland  would  have  hesitated  before  incorporating  in  the  legislation  of 
this  State,  as  the  first  bill  fixing  the  hours  of  labor  in  one  single  business,  a  meas- 
ure as  faulty  as  this  ;  as  little  likely  to  accomplish  its  professed  object,  and  as 
likely  to  result  in  a  diminution  of  the  men's  earnings  by  reason  of  a  reduction  of 
trips,  since  the  general  practice,  not  forbidden  by  the  bill,  is  to  pay  not  by  the  day 
but  by  the  trip.  It  is  a  matter  of  general  information  that  the  wages  of  these 
hard-working  men  is  now  hardly  more  than  sufficient  to  afford  them  a  bare  sub- 
sistence. 

The  general  understanding  of  the  character  of  the  measure  and  the  reason  why 
the  Senate  delayed  its  passage  were  declared  upon  the  day  of  legislative  adjourn- 
ment, and  before  the  bill  reached  the  Governor,  by  a  prominent  Republican  jour- 
nal (the  Albany  Evening  Journal),  now  supporting  the  Republican  candidates,  in 
the  following  terms : 

"The  Senate,  however,  gave  these  matters  closer  investigation  and  finding  that 
in  many  respects  the  bills  checked  rather  than  advanced  the  cause  of  labor, 
declined  to  concur  in  them.  Among  these  measures  was  Mr.  Earl's  bill  fixing 
hours  of  labor  for  horse-car  conductors,  in  behalf  only  time  Speaker  Sheard  him- 
self took  the  floor  for  the  only  time  during  the  session.  In  the  Senate  it  was  shown 
that  the  bill  would  be  inoperative,  and  it  was  accordingly  lost.  It  was  recon- 
sidered late  at  night  and  passed.  It  is  purely  a  piece  of  buncombe  legislation  and 
a  patent  lie  in  its  very  title." 

To  a  bill  likely  to  disappoint  the  expectations  of  those  who  had  been  led  to 
suppose  that  it  was  sufficient  and  beneficial  instead  of  a  delusion,  Governor  Cleve- 
land could  not  give  his  approval.  Always  unwilling  to  assume  the  appearance  of 
doing  something  when  in  fact  the  act  was  worthless  ;  unwilling  when  asked  for 
bread  to  give  a  stone,  he  was  compelled  to  let  this  bill  die,  sincerely  declaring  ' '  I 
cannot  think  this  bill  is  in  the  interest  of  the  workingmen." 

All  other  bills  distinctly  relating  to  labor  or  urged  by  labor  interests  were 
defeated  by  a  Republican  Legislature  and  not  permitted  to  reach  the  Governor. 

Making  Laboring  Men  Preferred  Creditors. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  care  Governor  Cleveland  manifests  for  laboring  men,  the 
prompt  signing  of  a  bill  which  creates  laboring  men  preferred  creditors  for  wages 
in  the  case  of  the  assignment  of  an  employer.  This  bill,  most  important  to  labor- 
ing men,  attracted  little  attention  even  from  laboring  men  at  the  time  of  its  enact- 
ment, but  the  quick  eye  and  mind  of  the  Governor  appreciated  its  value  and  he 
made  it  a  law.     The  law  is  as  follows  : 

CHAP.  328. 

"-  An  Act  to  amend  chapter  four  hundred  and  sixty-six  of  the  laws  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  seventy-seven,  entitled  '  An  act  in  relation  to  assignments  of  the 
estates  of  debtors  for  the  benefit  of  creditors.' 

Passed  May  21,  1884,  three-fifths  being  present. 

'•  The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do 
enact  as  follows  :  , 

"  Section  1.  Section  twenty-nine  of  chapter  four  hundred  and  sixty-six  of  the 
laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-seven,  entitled  '  An  act  in  relation  to  assign- 
ments of  the  estates  of  debtors  for  the  benefit  of  creditors,'  is  hereby  amended  to 
read  as  follows  :. 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  35 

"  §  29.  In  all  assignments,  made  in  pursuance  of  this  act,  the  wages  or 
salaries  actually  owing  to  the  employees  of  the  assignor  or  assignors  at  the  time  of 
the  execution  of  the  assignment,  shall  be  preferred  before  any  other  debt ;  and 
should  the  assets  of  the  assignor  or  assignors  not  be  sufficient  to  pa}T  in  full  all  the 
claims  preferred,  pursuant  to  this  section,  they  shall  be  applied  to  the  payment  of 
the  same  pro  rata  to  the  amount  of  each  such  claim. 

"  §  2.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

Wr\at  the  President  of  one  of  the  Principal  Labor  Organizations  of  the 

State  of  New  York  says. 

Troy,  July  21,  1884. 
lo  the  Argus  : 

I  have  been  informed  that  a  statement  has  been  published  to  the  effect  that 
while  in  Chicago  at  the  recent  National  Democratic  Convention  I  stated  that  I 
could  pledge  the  vote  of  the  workingmen  of  this  and  other  localities  to  Governor 
Cleveland.  I  wish  to  state  that  no  such  expression  ever  fell  from  my  lips,  and 
that  no  interview  with  me  was  ever  published  in  which  I  made  such  a  statement. 
On  the  contrary,  I  stated  that  no  man  could  pledge  the  vote  of  the  labor  element 
of  New  York  State,  or  of  any  portion  of  it,  lo  any  candidate,  nor  did  any  man 
have  sufficient  influence  ;.  to  cause  it  to  be  cast  against  any  candidate.  I  stated 
that  if  any  man  pretended  to  pledge  the  workingmen's  vote  to  any  candidate  he 
did  so  without  any  authority.  I  stated  that  I  had  no  authority  to 
speak  for  them  on  political  questions,  nor  had  anyone  else.  I  was  asked 
what  my  'personal  preferences  were,  and  I  said  that  I  preferred  Governor 
Cleveland.  When  asked  my  reasons  I  expressed  them  as  follows  :  The  Work- 
ingmen's Assembly  of  this  State  has,  since  I  have  been  at  the  head  of 
that  organization,  succeeded  in  passing  through  the  Legislature 
the  following  bills :  Abolishing  the  manufacture  of  hats  in  the 
State  prisons  ;  creating  a  bureau  of  labor  statistics ;  the  tene- 
ment house  cigar  bill  {twice)  ;  the  abolition  of  convict  contract 
labor ;  the  lien  law,  and  the  conductors  and  drivers'  bill — seven 
in  all .  Of  these  measures  Governor  Cleveland  signed  five  and  vetoed  two,  viz  : 
The  lien  law  and  the  conductors'  and  drivers'  bill.  As  to  the  lien  law,  it  is  gen- 
erally acknowledged  now  that  he  did  us  a  kindness  in  vetoing  that  bill,  because, 
through  errors  of  our  own  in  drafting  the  measure,  the  bill  as  passed  would  have 
been  a  positive  injury  to  us.  The  conductors'  and  drivers'  bill,  I  think,  he  should 
have  signed.  So  the  record  shows  that  we  have  sent  to  Governor  Cleveland  six 
perfect  bills  and  he  has  signed  five  and  vetoed  one.  On  this  record  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  condemn  him.  If  the  Governor  does  us  five  favors  and  commits  but  one 
error,  I  feel  that  he  is  entitled  to  my  support.  In  addition  to  the  labor  measures 
prepared  by  our  organization  Governor  Cleveland  has  signed  a  bill  introduced  by 
Senator  Fassett,  which  makes  workingmen  preferred  creditors  in  case  of  assign- 
ment or  failure  of  the  firm  or  corporation  by  which  they  are  employed.  Recog- 
nizing the  justice  of  the  measure  and  its  great  benefits  to  the  working  class,  I 
asked  Governor  Cleveland  to  sign  it  and  he  did  so  without  hesitation.  So,  to  sum 
the  matter  up,  he  has  approved  of  six  bills  favorable  to  our  interests  and  disap- 
proved of  one.  By  his  record  on  legitimate  labor  measures  I  judge  him,  and  on 
the  strength  of  that  record  I  shall  support  him.  I  do  not  wish  it  understood  that 
I  am  voicing  the  sentiments  or  preferences  of  anyone  but  myself.  I  have  no 
authority  to  speak  for  the  workingmen  on  political  subjects. 

Yours  truly, 

WALTER  N.  THAYER, 
President  of  the  New  York  State  Trades'  Assembly. 


36  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

Two  facts  must  be  strikingly  apparent  from  the  foregoing  : 

First,  that  though  labor  has  been  organized  for  many  years,  it  has  been  in 
agitations  unsuccessful  until  a  recent  period. 

Second,  that  within  the  two  years  last  passed,  it  has  accomplished  nearly  all  or 
quite  all  its  demands. 

How  comes  this  about  that  suddenly  so  much  success  attends  labor  agitations  ? 
The  answers  are  equally  clear.  In  1882  the  Democratic  party  accepted  the^con- 
tentions  of  labor  as  its  own,  and  upon  the  platform  embracing  these  contentions 
Grover  Cleveland,  the  honest  man,  was  elected  Governor.  Proposing  to  faithfully 
carry  out  the  pledges  and  promises  he  had  made  in  the  acceptance  of  the  platform, 
he  insisted  upon  all  others  in  authority  doing  the  same,  and  the  result  is  the 
wonderful  progress  made  in  matters  of  labor — a  result  due  to  the  stand  taken  by 
Governor  Cleveland. 


Prisons  and  Pardons. 

Tr\e  Governor  ar\d  l\is  Exercise  of  the  Power  Vested  ir\  him. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  Governor  Cornell  was  the  appointment  of  a  superintendent 
of  prisons,  so  that  during  the  administration  of  Governor  Cleveland  the  prisons  of 
the  State  have  been  under  the  management  of  an  officer  not  appointed  by  the 
Governor. 

That  Governor  Cleveland  is  much  interested  in  the  prison  system  of  the  State  is 
shown  in  his  public  acts  and  papers.  The  penal  system  is  by  no  means  the  best 
that  could  be  designed,  and  the  responsibility  for  its  conduct  is  divided.  The 
correctional  institutions  of  the  State  are  the  State  prisons— Auburn,  Sing  Sing,  and 
Clinton  ;  the  penitentiaries— of  New  York,  Kings,  Erie,  Albany,  Monroe,  and 
Onondaga  counties  ;  houses  of  refuge  and  reformatories — the  New  York  House  of 
Refuge,  Western  House  of  Refuge  and  the  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira,  and  the 
county  jails. 

Of  these  the  State  prisons  are  under  direct  State  control ;  the  penitentiaries  are 
under  county  management  ;  the  reformatories  are  under  the  direction  of  managers 
appointed  by  the  Governor  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate  ;  and  the  common  jails 
are  under  county  control.  Without  attempting  to  discuss  the  wisdom  of  the  sys- 
tem of  divided  authority,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  here  that  in  that  which  the  State 
has  control,  the  Governor  began  very  early  to  manifest  a  deep  concern.  Hardly  a 
month  had  elapsed  after  assuming  the  duties  of  Governor  before  he  addressed  the 
following  letter  to  Superintendent  Baker  : 

Treatment  of  Convicts. 

State  of  New  York,  Executive  Chamber,  ) 
Albany,  February  2,  1883.         ) 

Hon.  Isaac  Y.  Baker,  Jr. ,  Superintendent  of  State  Prisons : 

Dear  Sir — I  deem  it  proper  to  call  your  attention  to  the  provisions  of  section 
108  of  chapter  460  of  the  Laws  of  1847,  which  prohibits  the  infliction  of  blows 
upon  any  convict  in  the  State  prisons  by  the  keepers  thereof,  except  in  self- 
defense  or  to  suppress  a  revolt  or  insurrection ;  and  also  to  chapter  869  of  the  Laws 
of  1869,  abolishing  the  punishments  commonly  known  as  the  shower-bath,  crucifix 
or  yoke  and  buck.  I  suppose  these  latter  forms  of  punishment  were  devised  to 
take  the  place  of  the  blows  prohibited  by  the  law  of  1847. 

Both  of  the  statutes  above  referred  to  seem  to  be  still  in  force,  and  in  my 
opinion,  they  are  in  no  manner  affected  by  the  Constitutional  Amendment  giving 
the  Superintendent  "  the  superintendence,  management  and  control  of  the  prisons," 
nor  by  sections  1  and  5  of  chapter  107  of  the  Laws  of  1877,  providing  that  the 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  37 

Superintendent  shall  have  the  management  and  control  of  the  prisons  and  of  the 
convicts  therein,  and  of  all  matters  relating  to  the  government,  discipline,  police, 
contracts  and  fiscal  concerns  thereof,  and  that  he  shall  make  such  rules  and  regu- 
lations for  the  government  and  punishment  of  the  convicts  as  he  may  deem  proper. 
I  especially  desire  to  avoid  any  injurious  interference  with  the  maintenance  by 
the  prison  authorities  of  efficient  discipline  ;  but  I  insist  that,  in  the  treatment  of 
prisoners  convicted  of  crime,  the  existing  statutes  of  the  State  on  that  subject 
should  be  observed. 

Yours  respectfully, 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

The  Pardoning  Power. 

The  great  and  merciful  power  of  pardon  is  vested  in  the  Governor.  There  was 
a^time  in  the  history  of  this  State  when,  probably,  this  power  was  exercised  too 
freely  and  without  due  discretion.  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  why,  when  a  change 
in'this  matter  took  place,  the  other  extreme  was  reached,  and  when  quite  as  much 
fault  could  be  found  with  the  one  as  the  other.  There  are  times  when  the  with- 
holding of  clemency  is  as  great  an  injustice  as  its  lavish  exercise. 

Comnqutations. 

So  far  as  it  lay  in  his  power,  Governor  Cleveland  began  reforms  in  the  matter 
of  the  treatment  of  prisoners.  Under  the  statutes,  a  prisoner  for  good  conduct  is 
allowed  a  remission  or  commutation  of  two  months  for  each  of  the  first  two  years, 
four  months  for  the  third  and  fourth,  and  five  months  for  each  subsequent  year. 
The  question  of  the  aggregating  of  sentences  in  the  allowance  for  good  conduct 
was  settled  in  the  affirmative  early  in  the  administration  of  Governor  Cleveland, 
andjproperly,  for  few  will  be  willing  to  deny  that  he  who  receives  four  sentences 
of^five  years  each  is  entitled  to  as  much  commutation  for  good  conduct  as  he  who 
receives  a  single  sentence  of  twenty  years. 

A  Reform, 

The  Governor  also  decided  that  all  prisoners  confined  in  the  prisons  or  peniten- 
tiaries having  an  aggregate  sentence  of  one  year  or  over,  could  earn  commuta- 
tion whether  under  conviction  of  felony  or  other  crimes  or  misdemeanors.  And 
who  will  deny  that  this  decision  was  not  the  correct  one,  when  it  is  considered  that 
the  sole  object  of  the  laws  authorizing  these  commutations  is  to  encourage  good 
conduct  and  promote  discipline  in  prisons  ?  Moreover,  it  was  a  demonstration, 
and  an  early  one,  of  the  humane  instincts  of  the  Governor. 

The  Governor  on  Reformatories. 

Quite  in  the  line  of  this  policy  is  his  comments  upon  the  reformatories  in  his 
last  message  to  the  Legislature.     He  says  : 

"  Of  the  number  above  mentioned,  507  (the  15,000  men,  women  and  children 
confined  in  the  prisons,  houses  of  refuge,  penitentiaries,  reformatories,  jails  and 
protectories)  were  confined  in  the  State  Reformatory  at  Elmira,  upon  conviction 
of  felonies.  Such  convicts  are  required  to  be  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and 
thirty  years.  No  term  of  imprisonment  is  fixed  by  the  sentence,  but  they  cannot 
be  detained  longer  than  the  maximum  time  for  which  they  might  have  been  sent 
to  prison.  Within  this  limit  they  may  be  imprisoned  until  discharged  by  the 
rules  of  the  institution. 

"The  board  of  managers  may  transfer  'temporarily'  to  either  of  the  State 
prisons  any  inmate,  who,  subsequent  to  his  committal  to  the  reformatory,  shall  be 
shown  to  have  been,  at  the  time  of  his  conviction,  more  than  thirty  years  of  age, 
or  to  have  been  previously  convicted  of  crime,  or  any  apparently  incorrigible 
prisoner  whose  presence  in  the  ref  ormatoiy  appears  to  be  seriously  detrimental  to 
the  well-being  of  the  institution.  If  after  such  transfer  he  is  not  recalled  by  the 
managers,  he  must  remain  in  State  prison  during  the  balance  of  the  longest  sen- 


38  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

tence  that  might  have  originally  been  imposed  upon  him.  The  law  allowing  a 
reduction  of  the  time  of  imprisonment  for  good  conduct  "is  not  applicable  to  his 
case. 

"  On  application  to  the  prison  at  Auburn,  I  learn  that  since  the  reformatory  was 
established,  and  up  to  the  6th  day  of  December,  1883,  seventy-five  persons  who  had 
originally  been  sent  to  the  reformatory  were  transferred  under  the  conditions  above 
stated  to  the  Auburn  State  prison.  Of  these  fifteen  have  been  allowed  to  serve  in 
prison  the  longest  sentence  that  could  have  been  pronounced  for  their  crime ;  one 
was  discharged  by  order  of  the  managers  of  the  reformatory  ;  one  was  transferred 
to  Clinton  prison  ;  four  were  transferred  to  the  Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals  (one 
of  whom  was  subsequently  returned  to  prison)  ;  two  died  ;  one  was  recalled  to  the 
reformatory,  and  fifty-two  still  remained  in  the  prison.  How  many  of  these  were 
sent  to  the  State  prison  by  the  managers  because,  in  their  view,  they  were  '  appar- 
ently incorrigible  prisoners,  whose  presence  in  the  reformatory  appears  to  be  seri- 
ously detrimental  to  the  well  being  of  the  institution,'  is  not  reported,  but  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  a  large  proportion  were  consigned  to  prison  on  that  allegation.  The 
prisoner  thus  transferred,  who  was  sentenced  to  the  reformatory,  in  mercy,  to  avoid 
the  stigma  of  a  sentence  to  prison,  and  for  purposes  of  reform,  because  he  had 
maintained  theretofore  a  good  reputation  and  standing  in  society,  may  meet  at  the 
door  of  the  prison  his  accomplice  in  the  crime  committed,  who,  having  made  no 
pretense  of  character  or  respectability,  has  served  the  sentence  to  prison  pronounced 
upon  him  by  the  court.  The  worst  and  most  hardened  criminals,  if  originally  sent 
to  prison,  earn,  by  good  conduct,  a  considerable  reduction  of  imprisonment,  but 
the  convict  from  the  reformatory  has  no  such  thing  to  hope  or  strive  for.  In  my 
opinion  there  should  be  no  power  vested  in  the  Board  of  Managers  of  this  institution 
to  send  persons  committed  to  their  care  to  the  State  prisons  ;  and  if  convicts  are 
sentenced  to  the  reformatory,  the  courts  should  exercise  the  greatest  care  to  be 
satisfied  that  they  are  promising  subjects  for  reformatory  efforts,  and  fix  a  term 
beyond  which  they  cannot  be  confined.  A  release  before  the  time  thus  fixed  might 
well  be  offered  as  a  reward  for  improvement,  reform  or  good  conduct. 

"  The  law  in  relation  to  the  reduction  for  good  behavior  of  the  terms  of  convicts 
in  State  prison  should  be  made  more  plain  and  definite,  and  the  power  of  the  prison 
authorities  to  refuse  such  reduction  be  more  exactly  defined." 

A  few  months  subsequently  to  this  message  the  Governor  decided,  upon  a 
careful  examination  of  the  statute  on  the  subject  of  commutation  that  he 
had  the  right  to  extend  commutation  to  the  reformatory  transfers.  He  immediately 
ordered  the  discharge  of  six  who,  under  his  view  of  the  statute,  were  entitled  to  be 
so  discharged,  and  filed  the  following  reasons  for  his  action  : 

These  convicts  having  been  originally  sentenced  to  the  New  York  State  Reform- 
atory, no  limit  was  fixed  by  the  court  to  the  term  of  their  imprisonment.  But 
by  the  provisions  of  the  statute  relating  to  this  institution,  such  convicts  may  be 
discharged  by  the  managers,  under  certain  conditions ;  and,  in  case  the  discretion 
thus  vested  in  the  managers  is  not  exercised,  convicts  committed  to  the  reformatory 
may  be  imprisoned  therein  for  the  longest  term  provided  by  law  as  a  punishment 
for  the  offense  of  which  they  were  convicted. 

Of  course,  the  intention  of  the  law  was  that  persons  convicted  of  crime,  whose 
youth,  or  freedom  from  criminal  habits  and  associations,  gave  promise  of  reforma- 
tion, should  not  be  classed  and  kept  with  old  and  hardened  criminals,  but  should 
be  committed  to  the  reformatory,  where  they  might  receive  instruction  and 
encouragement,  and  that  their  discharge  within  the  limit  which  the  law  had  fixed 
for  their  crime  should  be  dependent  upon  the  progress  they  made  toward  refor- 
mation. 

But  it  is  also  provided  that  the  managers  of  this  institution  may,  in  certain 
cases,  transfer  prisoners  to  a  State  prison,  where,  unless  they  are  recalled  to  the 
reformatory,  they  are  kept  the  balance  of  the  longest  term  for  which  they  might 
have  been  sentenced  to  prison. 

This  I  consider  entirely  wrong.  If  a  convict  is  to  be  confined  in  a  State  prison, 
the  criminal  courts  should  fix  his  term  ;  and  the  discretion  which  may  be,  in  such 
cases,  exercised  by  the  courts,  should  not  be  abridged  nor  vested  in  the  managers 
of  the  reformatory. 

And,  to  add  to  this  injustice  and  this  anomalous  method  of  administering  the 
criminal  law,  it  has  thus  far  been  held,  I  believe,  that  the  provisions  of  the  statute 


PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND. 


39 


relating  to  reduction  of  a  prisoner's  term  for  good  conduct  does  not  apply  to 
such  convicts  as  are  transferred  from  the  reformatory  to  the  prisons. 

The  result  is  that  an  old  offender,  of  previous  bad  character,  is  frequently  sent 
to  prison  by  the  court,  for  a  term  much  less  than  the  longest  time  allowed  by  law, 
and,  through  good  conduct  in  prison,  can  earn  considerable  commutation  of  his 
sentence  ;  while  a  young  man,  convicted  of  his  first  offense,  with  good  character 
and  respectable  surroundings,  sent  by  the  court  to  the  reformatory,  for  imprison- 
ment and  reform,  may  be  doomed  by  the  managers  of  this  institution  to  finish  the 
longest  term  which  his  offense  permits  in  the  State  prison,  with  no  commutation  for 
the  most  exemplary  conduct. 

The  least  that  should  be  done  for  convicts  transferred  under  the  present  law 
from  the  reformatory  to  prison  is  to  allow  them  for  good  conduct  in  prison  the 
same  commutation  on  the  remainder  of  the  term  for  which  they  might  be  confined, 
dating  from  the  day  of  their  transfer,  that  they  would  be  entitled  to  if  that  was  the 
beginning  of  an  original  sentence  to  prison.  I  think  the  statute  in  relation  to  com- 
mutations for  good  conduct  in  prison  permits  this.  If  it  does  not,  it  ought  to,  and 
I  am  glad  that  I  have  the  power,  in  any  event,  to  rectify  such  wrongs,  by  the 
interposition  of  a  special  commutation. 

The  conduct  of  the  six  convicts  above  mentioned  so  transferred  from  the  New 
York  State  reformatory  to  Auburn  prison  is  reported  by  the  warden  of  the  latter 
institution  to  be  good. 

Making  the  deductions  from  their  terms,  which  I  believe  them  to  have  earned, 
all  are  now  entitled  to  be  discharged  except  two,  whose  terms,  under  the  rule 
adopted,  will  respectively  expire  on  the  sixth  and  eighth  days  of  the  present  month. 

I  cannot  now  do  what  I  regard  full  justice  to  all  these  convicts,  but  I  have 
determined  to  approximate  it  as  nearlyas  possible  by  commuting  their  terms  to  the 
eighth  day  of  March,  1884,  which  is  probably  as  early  as  the  necessary  documents 
can  be  perfected  and  forwarded. 

As  to  Pardons. 

With  respect  to  pardons,  he  has  exercised  a  wise  discretion,  and  he  has  been 
the  first  Governor  since  the  time  of  Hoffman  to  set  forth  in  writing  his  reasons  to 
accompany  the  pardon.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  this  practice,  so  entirely 
right,  has  given  birth  to  the  idea  that  he  exercised  this  power  in  a  most  lavish 
manner.  To  state  exactly  the  fact,  and  to  show  exactly  how  his  record  in  this 
matter  stands  in  comparison  with  his  predecessors,  the  following  table  is  presented  : 

A  Comparative  Statement. 


Governor  Fenton,  1865 , 

Governor  Fenton,  1866 , 

Governor  Fenton,  1867 , 

Governor  Fenton,  1 868 

Governor  Hoffman,  1869 

Governor  Hoffman,  1870 

Governor  Hoffman,  1871 

Governor  Hoffman,  1872 

Governor  Dix,  1873 , 

Governor  Dix,  1874 

Governor  TilHen,  1875 

Governor  Tilden,  1870 , 

Governor   Robinson,  1877 

Governor  Robinson,  1878 

Governor  Robinson,   1879 

Governor  Cornell,  1880 

Governor  Cornell,  1881 

Governor  Cornell,  188? 

Governor  Cleveland,  1883 

Governor  Cleveland,  1884,  to  July  16 


Acts  of 
Clemency. 


*53 
194 
142 

153 
108 
120 
118 
157 
55 
95 
100 
160 
in 

i74 
211 

56 

19 
20 

57 
34 


Applications. 


278 
452 
440 
400 
298 
400 

344 
600 
242 
362 
35° 
456 
380 
402 
492 
226 
180 
126 
290 
237 


Per  Cent. 


55 
42 

32 
38 
36 
30 
34 
26 
22 
26 
28 

35 
29 

43 
42 
24 
10.34 

15 
19 
14-33 


The  above  table  shows  that  up  to  the  date  of  writing  Governor  Cleveland's  per- 
centage of  pardons  upon  the  applications  made  is  less  than  that  of  any  of  his  pred- 


40  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

ecessors,  and  the  actual  number  less  than  his  six  predecessors,  except  the  one 
who  immediately  preceded  him. 

Reasons  Given. 

In  each  case  of  a  pardon  granted,  his  reasons,  as  was  remarked  above,  set  forth 
in  writing,  have  accompanied  them.  These  have  never  been  questioned  as  not 
being  sufficient  and  good.  Not  a  few  have  been  granted  for  the  reason  that  the 
convict  had  but  a  few  days  to  live  ;  others  that  a  re-examination  of  the  case  has 
shown  that  ends  of  justice  have  been  served  in  the  term  of  imprisonment  already 
undergone  ;  others  upon  the  ground  that  being  improperly  defended,  the  prisoner 
had  been  convicted  of  a  degree  of  crime  of  which  he  was  not  guilty,  and  had 
already  served  the  term,  which  is  the  penalty  of  the  degrees  of  crime  of  which  he 
was  really  guilty.  Justice,  hand  in  hand  with  humanity,  have  been  the  advisers 
of  the  Governor  in  the  exercise  of  the  pardoning  power. 

The  Governor's  record  upon  convict  contract  labor,  and  upon  child  contract 
labor,  having  already  been  presented  as  part  of  his  record  upon  the  labor  question, 
will  not  be  repeated  here. 


Charities. 


Governor  Cleveland  has  had  frequent  occasion  to  consider  and  discuss  the 
important  subject  of  charities,  and  has  invariably  exhibited  a  keen  sensibility  to 
the  sufferings  of  the  unfortunate,  and  a  hearty  desire  to  relieve  their  distress.  In 
his  annual  message  for  1884  he  thus  reviewed  the  operations  of  the  public  chari- 
ties of  the  State  of  New  York  : 

"Some  attention  given  to  the  system  of  supervision  of  the  charitable  and 
reformatory  institutions  of  the  State  convinces  me  that  it  might  be  much  improved. 

"  The  State  Board  of  Charities  is  vested  with  the  power  of  visitation  and 
examination,  and  is  required  to  report  the  condition  of  the  institutions  visited,  which 
include  all  the  charitable  and  correctional  institutions  in  the  State. 

"  The  State  Commissioner  in  Lunacy  is  authorized  and  directed  to  examine 
into  and  report  annually  to  the  Legislature  the  condition  of  the  insane  and  idiotic 
in  the  State,  and  the  management  and  conduct  of  the  asylums  and  institutions  for 
their  care  and  treatment. 

"  The  boards  of  trustees  or  managers  of  all  the  charitable  and  correctional 
institutions  have  generally  the  control  of  their  business  and  internal  management. 

"The  superintendents  hold  their  positions  under  the  boards  of  trustees,  and  are 
supposed  to  devote  their  attention  to  the  care  of  the  inmates  of  the  institution. 

"  The  Board  of  Charities  is  composed  of  most  estimable  men  and  women,  who 
receive  no  compensation  for  their  services,  but  devote  all  the  time  to  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duties  that  can  reasonably  be  expected,  and  their  labors  are  undeniably 
valuable.  Their  powers  are  advisory  in  their  nature,  and  their  recommendations 
are  often  unheeded. 

' '  The  powers  and  duties  of  the  State  Commissioner  in  Lunacy,  so  far  as  the 
institutions  for  the  insane  and  idiotic  are  concerned,  are  nearly  identical  with 
those  of  the  Board  of  Charities  ;  and  unfortunate  questions  have  arisen  from  this 
condition. 

' '  The  visitations  of  the  Board  of  Charities,  as  well  as  the  Commissioner  in 
Lunacy,  are  necessarily  infrequent,  and  the  information  they  gain  of  the  actual 
management  of  the  institutions  quite  general  and  imperfect. 

' '  The  local  board  of  trustees  gratuitously  perform  the  duties  they  have  as- 
sumed, and,  while  not  unfaithful,  can  hardly  be  expected  to  devote  time  very  con- 
stantly to  the  details  of  management.  They  very  naturally  gain  much  of  their 
information  from  the  statements  of  the  superintendent  in  charge. 

"  A  recent  investigation  by  a  committee  of  the  managers  of  the  Western  House 
of  Refuge,  where  delinquent  boys  and  girls  are  sent  for  reform  and  instruction, 


PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND.  41 

•satisfied  the  committee  that  for  months  the  by-laws  and  regulations  of  the  insti- 
tution relating  to  the  punishment  of  inmates  had  been  violated  ;  that  the  boys 
there  confined  had  been  beaten,  abused  and  assaulted  in  the  most  outrageous 
manner  by  the  attendants  and  subordinates  in  charge,  and  the  funds  of  the  insti- 
tution had  not  been  sufficiently  protected. 

"It  is  assumed  that  neither  the  Board  of  Charities  nor  the  local  board  of 
trustees  had  an}'-  knowledge  of  these  things  until  they  were  exposed  by  the  investi- 
gation ;  and  the  superintendent  testifies  that  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
instances  of  cruelty  established  by  the  testimony. 

' '  A  system  which  permits  this  condition  of  things  is  evidently  defective. 

"  The  time  will  never  come  when  the  humane  sentiment  of  the  people  will 
approve  the  cruel  treatment  or  the  neglect  of  the  unfortunate,  or  even  criminal, 
inmates  of  these  institutions  ;  "and  their  usefulness  depends  upon  giving  no  occa- 
sion for  the  growth  of  a  suspicious  and  unreasoning  belief  that  their  benevolent 
purposes  are  lost  or  perverted.  That  system  of  management  is,  therefore,  mani- 
festly best  which  most  nearly  satisfies  the  public  that  it  is  conducted  with  due 
regard  to  justice  and  forbearance. " 

While  he  was  Mayor  of  Buffalo  his  attention  was  drawn  to  the  perils  of  chil- 
dren wandering  through  the  streets  by  night,  and  he  addressed  the  Common  Coun- 
cil as  follows  : 

Perils  of    Children. 

Buffalo,  June  5,  1882. 

' '  My  attention  has  been  called,  by  a  committee  from  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Children,  to  the  number  of  small  boys  and  girls  found  upon 
our  streets  at  late  hours  in  the  night. 

' '  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  many  of  these  children  are  allowed,  and  some 
are  obliged,  by  their  parents,  to  thus  remain  in  the  streets  for  the  ostensible  purpose 
of  earning  money  by  selling  newspapers  or  blacking  boots.  In  truth,  however, 
after  a  certain  hour  in  the  evening,  the  most,  if  not  all  the  money  they  receive, 
they  obtain  by  begging  or  by  false  pretenses.  In  the  meantime,  they  are  subjected 
to  worst  influences,  leading  directly  to  profligacy,  vagrancy  and  crime. 

' k  The  importance  of  caring  for  children  who  are  uncared  for  by  their  natural 
guardians,  or  who  are  unmindful  of  parental  restraint,  must  be  apparent  to  all. 
In  the  future,  for  good  or  evil,  their  influence  will  be  felt  in  the  community  ;  and 
certainly  the  attempt  to  prevent  their  swelling  the  criminal  class  is  worth  an  effort. 

f<  It  seems  to  me  that  no  pretext  should  be  permitted  to  excuse  allowing  young 
girls  to  be  on  the  streets  at  improper  hours,  since  the  result  must  necessarily  be 
their  destruction. 

' '  The  disposition  of  the  boy  (child  though  he  be)  to  aid  in  his  own  support  or 
that  of  others,  in  an  honest,  decent  way,  ought  not  to  be  discouraged.  But  this 
does  not  call  for  his  being  in  the  street  at  late  hours,  to  his  infinite  damage 
morally,  mentally,  and  physically,  and  to  the  danger  of  society. 

"  I  respectfully  suggest  that  this  subject  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Ordinances  and  the  Attorney,  and  that  a  committee  from  the  Society  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Cruelty  to  Children  be  invited  to  co-operate  with  them  in  an  effort  to 
frame  an  ordinance  which  will  remedy  the  evil  herein  considered. 

"GROVER  CLEVELAND,  Mayor." 

The  Catholic  Protectory. 

In  the  year  1883  the  Governor  found  it  necessary  to  withhold  his  approval  from 
an  appropriation  for  the  Catholic  Protectory,  upon  the  ground  that  the  expense  of 
maintaining  destitute  children  there  was  properly  chargeable  upon  the  treasury  of 
the  City  of  New  York.  This  Protectory  is  a  local  institution  open  to  children 
committed  by  the  courts  in  New  York  City  only.  All  knowing  these  facts  agree 
that  there  is  a  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the  propriety  of  other  cities  and  counties, 
which  have  no  benefit,  being  taxed  to  contribute  to  its  support. 

Some  criticism  upon  this  veto  was  expressed  by  those  ignorant  of  the  purely 
public  considerations  which  influenced  the  Governor,  who,  in  his  appointments 
and  personal  friendships  has  shown  his  absolute  freedom  from  all  sectarian  preju- 


42  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

dice.      To  such  criticism  a  ready  answer  has  been  given  by  gentlemen  who  are 
officers  of  the  Protectory,  in  the  following  letter  : 

"  Mr.  Daniel  Manning,  Chairman  New  York  Delegation,  Chicago,  III. : 

"  We  never  doubted  the  sincerity  of  the  motives  which  induced  Governor  Cleve- 
land to  withhold  his  signature  to  the  appropriation  to  the  Protectory.  We  thought 
then,  and  think  now,  that  he  was  not  actuated  by  any  feeling  of  bigotry,  or  of  hos- 
tility to  Catholics  or  to  Catholic  institutions.  On  the  contrary,  Governor  Cleveland 
is  liberal  in  the  extreme,  and  we  are  of  the  firm  belief  that  he  was  led  to  with- 
holding his  approval  of  the  appropriation  solely  by  a  sense  of  public  duty  as  he 
viewed  it. 

"  HENRY  L.  HOGUET, 

President  of  the  Protectory. 
"  JOHN  E.  DEYELIN, 

Legal  Adviser  to  the  Protectory. " 

Grover  Cleveland  and  the  Catholics. 

[Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  Sentinel.'] 
The  Bentinel  takes  pleasure  in  laying  before  its  readers  a  personal  letter  from 
the  Hon.  Thos.  V.  Welch,  member  of  the  Assembly  of  New  York,  in  reply  to  the 
inquiries  made  by  Mr.  Charles  A.  Walter,  a  well-known  merchant  of  Huntington, 
and  president  of  the  Young  Men's  Cleveland  and  Hendricks'  club  at  that  place. 
Mr.  Walter  is  an  ardent  Catholic,  and  wrote  Mr.  Welch  in  order  that  he  might 
know  the  truth.  We  ask  a  careful  reading  of  it  from  all,  Catholics  and 
Protestants  : 

Niagara  Falls,  July  16,  1884. 
Mr.  Charles  A.  Walter,  Huntington,  Ind. : 

Dear  Sir — In  reply  to  the  inquiries  made  in  your  letter  of  July  14,  I  wish  to 
state  : 

1st.  Grover  Cleveland  is  not  a  bigot  in  any  sense  of  the  word.  He  is  a  fair 
minded  man,  and  we,  who  are  his  neighbors,  know  of  no  instance  in  which  he  has 
antagonized  the  Catholic  church. 

2d.  Since  Grover  Cleveland  has  been  Governor  I  have  been  a  member  ,of  the 
Legislature.  I  know  of  no  official  act  of  his  that  would  indicate  hatred  on  his 
part  toward  the  Catholic  church.  On  the  contrary,  I  could  mention  many 
instances  of  friendly  action  on  his  part. 

3d.  The  letter  published  in  the  Buffalo  Courier  of  July  1,  over  my  signature, 
is  genuine,  and  I  here  reiterate  every  statement  made  therein. 

4th.  Governor  Cleveland  did  not  veto  the  '*  freedom  of  worship  "  bill.  The  bill 
did  not  pass  the  Legislature,  and  never  came  before  Governor  Cleveland  for  his 
action. 

5th.  Governor  Cleveland  did  veto  an  appropriation  for  a  Catholic  protectory  in 
this  State,  for  constitutional  reasons.  I  voted  for  the  appropriation  referred  to,  but 
upon  reading  Governor  Cleveland's  veto  message,  I  am  convinced  that  he  was 
justified  in  his  action.  The  constitution  of  our  State  allows  such  appropriations 
only  for  State  institutions.  It  is  admitted  that  the  institution  in  question  is  not  a 
State  institution. 

Governor  Cleveland  is  a  hard-working,  conscientious  public  officer,  thoroughly 
independent,  thoroughly  Democratic  and  thoroughly  American.  As  such  he  is 
justly  entitled  to  the  support  of  every  Democrat,  Catholic  and  non-Catholic  alike. 

As  an  earnest  advocate  of  Grover  Cleveland,  permit  me  to  add  that  I  was  a 
delegate  to  the  first  convention  of  the  Irish  National  Land  League,  at  Buffalo,  being 
at  that  time  president  of  the  branch  at  this  place.  I  am  a  member  of  St.  Mary's 
Catholic  Church,  and  of  Branch  No.  1  of  the  Catholic  Mutual  Benefit  Association, 
and  I  am  at  present  the  president  of  the  Niagara  Falls  Catholic  Total  Abstinence 
and  Literary  Society. 

Yery  sincerely  yours, 

Thomas  Y.  Welch, 
Member  of  Assembly,  Niagara  Countjr",  N.  Y.,  1883  and  1884. 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  43 

Letter  of  Mr.  Welch,  above  referred  to,  published  July  1 : 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Buffalo  Courier  : 

I  notice  with  regret  that  some  persons  in  the  Democratic  party  of  the  State  of 
New  York  who  oppose  the  nomination  of  Governor  Cleveland  for  President,  are 
endeavoring  to  create  a  false  impression  by  grossly  misrepresenting  his  position 
toward  the  Catholic  Church.  As  a  Catholic  and  a  member  of  the  Legislature  during 
the  last  two  years  I  cannot  recall  any  act  or  any  omission  of  Governor  Cleveland 
that  would  in  the  slightest  degree  justify  any  such  impression.  On  the  contrary, 
Governor  Cleveland  always  treated  Catholics  and  Catholic  interests  precisely  as  he 
did  the  members  of  other  religious  bodies  and  their  religious  interests,  fairly  and 
justty,  according  to  their  merit  ;  and  I  believe  that  to  be  as  much  as  any  sensible 
Catholic  expects  or  desires.  Having  served  upon  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  of  the  Assembly  during  the  sessions  of  1883  and  1884,  and  in  the  discharge 
of  official  duties  having  had  frequent  occasion  to  know  that  no  man  is  more  free 
from  bigotry  or  more  broad  and  comprehensive  in  his  religious  views  than  Gov- 
ernor Cleveland,  I,  as  a  sincere  and  practical  Catholic,  under  the  existing  circum- 
stances deem  it  my  duty  to  co-religionists  to  make  a  public  statement  of  my  abso- 
lute knowledge  of  that  fact. 

Thomas  Y.  Welch, 
Member  of  Assembly,  Niagara  County. 

Nl\gaka  Falls,  June  26,  1884. 

To  this  refutation  of  suggested  bias  on  the  part  of  Governor  Cleveland  against 
any  religious  faith,  may  be  here  added  a  denial  of  the  statement  that  he  vetoed  a 
bill  to  secure  freedom  of  worship  to  inmates  of  charitable  institutions.  No  such 
bill  ever  came  before  him,  the  untrue  report  to  the  contrary  doubtless  arising  from 
the  fact  that  his  Republican  predecessor,  Governor  Cornell,  did  veto  such  a  bill  on 
June  11,  1881. 

Liberality  of  Views. 

On  the  contrary,  the  liberal  disposition  of  Governor  Cleveland  was  shown  in 
his  approval,  in  1884,  for  the  first  time  by  any  Governor,  of  an  item  of  $1,500  in 
the  supply  bill  for  the  special  employment  and  payment  of  Catholic  clergy  minis- 
tering to  convicts  in  the  prisons  under  the  exclusive  control  of  the  State. 

Indeed,  in  all  cases  of  official  action  concerning  charitable  or  religious  bodies, 
Governor  Cleveland  has  submitted  himself  to  the  principle  which  has  everywhere 
controlled  him  as  a  public  officer,  and  has  asked:  "  W hat  are  my  powers  as  the 
servant  and  agent  of  the  whole  people  f"  And  as  a  public  officer,  he  has  felt  unable 
to  assent  to  the  disposition  of  public  moneys  for  any  purpose  not  strictly  public. 
As  a  private  citizen,  giving  from  his  own  limited  means,  no  just  or  worthy 
charity,  whatever  its  religious  affiliation,  has  found  him  indifferent.  Himself  a 
poor  boy  and  not  a  rich  man,  he  has  known  and  appreciates  the  needs  of  the  poor. 
A  further  refutation  of  the  charge  referred  to  is  found  in  Governor  Cleveland's 
appointments  of  John  D.  Kernan,  Railroad  Commissioner;  John  A.  McCall, 
Superintendent  of  the  Insurance  Department ;  James  Shanahan,  Superintendent 
of  Public  Works,  to  three  leading  positions  in  the  State  Government,  and  other 
prominent  Irish- Americans  to  offices  of  honor. 

Public  Moneys  to  be  Used  only  for  Public  Purposes. 

Governor  Cleveland  has  so  rigorously,  so  uniformly  and  so  openly  declared  the 
limitation  upon  the  powers  of  public  officers  administering  public  funds,  as  to 
become  a  standing  discouragement  to  assailants  of  the  public  treasury  for  private 
purposes.  His  supporters  will  not  be  found  among  those  who  seek  merely  an 
appropriation.  They  will  undoubtedly  be  repelled  by  the  unbroken  series  of  his 
public  utterance. 


44  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

In  accepting  the  nomination  as  Mayor  of  Buffalo,  he  said  : 

"  I  believe  much  can  be  done  to  relieve  our  citizens  from  their  present  load  of 
taxation,  and  that  a  more  rigid  scrutiny  of  all  public  expenditures  will  result  in  a 
great  saving  to  the  community.  I  also  believe  that  some  extravagances  in  our  city 
government  may  be  corrected  without  injury  to  the  public  service.  There  is,  or 
there  should  be,  no  reason  why  the  affairs  of  our  city  should  not  be  managed  with 
the  same  care  and  the  same  economy  as  private  interests.  And  when  we 
consider  that  public  officials  are  the  trustees  of  the  people  and  hold  their  places 
and  exercise  their  powers  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  there  should  be  no  higher 
inducement  to  a  faithful  and  honest  discharge  of  public  duty. " 

In  his  first  message  as  Mayor  of  Buffalo,  he  said  : 

"We  hold  the  money  of  the  people  in  our  hands  to  be  used  for  their  purposes 
and  to  further  their  interests  as  members  of  the  municipality  ;  and  it  is  quite 
apparent  that,  when  any  part  of  the  funds  which  the  taxpayers  have  thus  intrusted 
us,  are  diverted  to  other  purposes,  or  when  by  design  or  neglect,  we  allow  a 
greater  sum  to  be  applied  to  any  municipal  purpose  than  is  necessary,  we  have 
to  that  extent  violated  our  duty.  There  surely  is  no  difference  in  his  duties  and 
obligations,  whether  a  person  is  intrusted  with  the  money  of  one  man  or  many. 
And  yet  it  sometimes  appears  as  though  the  office-holder  assumes  that  a  different 
rule  of  fidelity  prevails  between  him  and  the  taxpayer  than  that  which  should 
regulate  his  conduct  when,  as  an  individual,  he  holds  the  money  of  his  neighbor. 

' '  It  seems  to  me  that  a  successful  and  faithful  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment of  our  city  may  be  accomplished  by  constantly  bearing  in  mind  that  we  are 
the  trustees  and  agents  of  our  fellow-citizens,  holding  their  funds  in  sacred  trust, 
to  be  expended  for  their  benefit ;  that  we  should  at  all  times  be  prepared  to  "render 
an  honest  account  of  them  touching  the  manner  of  their  expenditure  ;  and  that 
the  affairs  of  the  city  should  be  conducted,  as  far  as  possible,  upon  the  same 
principles  as  a  good  business  man  manages  his  private  concerns." 

Exercise  of  tf\e   Public  Trust. 

In  the  veto  of  a  claim  of  certain  officers  for  payment  for  extra  services,  while 
the  charter  forbade  extra  compensation,  he  said  : 

"By  the  terms  of  the  resolution  itself  it  appears  that  the  extra  services  per- 
formed were  fairly  embraced  in  the  official  duties  of  the  persons  performing  them. 
To  examine  the  books  and  to  restore  order  to  the  records  of  the  office,  was,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  peculiarly  the  business  of  the  claimants. 

"  If  the  work  could  not  be  done  in  the  regular  discharge  of  their  duties,  addi- 
tional clerks  might  have  been  employed  ;  but  they  having  elected  to  do  the  work 
themselves,  they  must  now  be  regarded  as  standing  in  the  attitude  of  claimants  for 
extra  compensation  '  for  the  performance  of  duties  which  really  pertain  to  the 
business  of  their  offices  or  positions.' 

"  However  meritorious  these  claims  may  be,  their  allowance  by  the  city  seems 
to  be  prohibited  by  law.     I  cannot,  therefore,  assent  to  their  payment." 

His  willingness  to  contribute  from  his  own  pocket  to  objects  meritorious, 
though  not  public,  rather  than  to  exhibit  that  easy  charity  which  gives  away  pub- 
lic moneys,  is  admirably  exhibited  in  the  following  message  sent  by  him  as  Mayor 

of  Buffalo  : 

Buffalo,  May  8,  1882.  _ 

"  At  the  last  session  of  your  honorable  body  a  resolution  was  adopted  directing 
the  City  Clerk  to  draw  a  warrant  for  five  hundred  dollars  in  favor  of  the  secretary 
of  the  Firemen's  Benevolent  Association. 

41  This  action  is  not  only  clearly  unauthorized,  but  it  is  distinctly  prohibited  by 
the  following  clause  of  the  State  Constitution  : 

"  '  No  county,  city,  town  or  village  shall  hereafter  give  any  money  or  property 
or  loan  its  money  or  credit  to,  or  in  aid  of  any  individual,  association  or  corpora- 
tion, or  become  directly  or  indirectly  the  owner  of  stock  in  or  bonds  of  any  asso- 
ciation or  corporation  ;  nor  shall  any  such  county,  city,  town  or  village  be  allowed 
to  incur  any  indebtedness  except  for  county,  city,  town  or  village  purpose. ": 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  45 

"  At  the  same  meeting  of  your  honorable  body  the  following  resolution  was 
passed  : 

"  '  That  the  City  Clerk  be  and  he  is  hereby  directed  to  draw  a  warrant  on  the 
4th  of  July  fund  for  five  hundred  dollars,  to  the  order  of  J.  S.  Edwards,  chairman 
of  the  Decoration  Day  Committee  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  for  the 
purpose  of  defraying  the  expenses  attending  a  proper  observance  of  Decoration 
Day.' 

"I  have  taxed  my  ingenuity  to  discover  a  way  to  consistently  approve  of  this 
resolution,  but  have  been  unable  to  do  so. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  only  obnoxious  to  the  provisions  of  the  constitu- 
tion above  quoted,  but  it  also  violates  that  section  of  the  charter  of  the  city  which 
makes  it  a  misdemeanor  to  appropriate  money  raised  for  one  purpose  to  any  other 
object.  Under  this  section  I  think  money  raised  '  for  the  celebration  of  the"  4th  of 
July  and  the  reception  of  distinguished  persons '  cannot  be  devoted  to  the  observ- 
ance of  Decoration  Day. 

"  I  DEEM  THE  OBJECT  OF  THIS  APPROPRIATION  A  MOST  WORTHY  ONE.  THE 
EFFORTS  OF  OUR  VETERAN  SOLDIERS  TO  KEEP  ALIVE  THE  MEMORY  OF  THEIR 
FALLEN  COMRADES  CERTAINLY  DESERVES  THE  AID  AND  ENCOURAGEMENT  OF 
THEIR  FELLOW-CITIZENS.  We  SHOULD  ALL,  I  THINK,  FEEL  IT  A  DUTY  AND  A 
PRIVILEGE    TO    CONTRIBUTE    TO   THE    FUNDS    NECESSARY    TO    CARRY    OUT    SUCH  A 

PURPOSE.  And  I  SHOULD  be  much  disappointed  if  an  appeal  to  our  citi- 
zens FOR  VOLUNTARY  SUBSCRIPTIONS  FOR  THIS  PATRIOTIC  OBJECT  SHOULD  BE  IN 
VAIN. 

"  But  the  money  so  contributed  should  be  a  free  gift  of  the  citizens 
and  taxpayers,  and  should  not  be  extorted  from  them  by  taxation. 
This  is  so,  because  the  purpose  for  which  this  money  is  asked  does  not 
involve  their  protection  or  interest  as  members  of  the  community, 
and  it  may  or  may  not  be  approved  by  them. 

"The  people  are  forced  to  pay  taxes  into  the  city  treasury  only  upon  the  theory 
that  such  money  shall  be  expended  for  public  purposes,  or  purposes  in  which  they 
all  have  a  direct  and  practical  interest. 

"  The  logic  of  this  position  leads  directly  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  the  people 
are  forced  to  pay  their  money  into  the  public  fund  and  it  is  spent  by  their  servants 
and  agents  for  purposes  in  which  the  people  as  tax-payers  have  no  interest,  the 
exaction  of  such  taxes  from  them  is  oppressive  and  unjust. 

' '  I  cannot  rid  myself  of  the  idea  that  this  city  government,  in  relation  to  the 
tax-payers,  is  a  business  establishment,  and  that  it  is  put  in  our  hands  to  be  con- 
ducted on  business  principles. 

"  This  theory  does  not  admit  of  our  donating  the  public  funds  in  the  manner 
contemplated  by  the  action  or  your  honorable  body. 

"  I  deem  it  my  duty,  therefore,  to  return  both  of  the  resolutions  herein  referred 
to,  without  my  approval." 

In  support  of  his  message  Mayor  Cleveland  headed  a  subscription  for  the  pur- 
pose with  a  liberal  sum,  and,  with  a  hearty  co-operation  of  citizens  approving  his 
action,  the  desired  fund  was  raised  promptly  without  resort  to  public  moneys. 

This  veto  and  contribution  by  Mayor  Cleveland  elicited  universal  approval,  the 
leading  Republican  journal  {The  Buffalo  Express),  saying: 

A  whole  volume  of  sound  sense  and  just  principles  of  municipal  government 
will  be  found  condensed  in  a  brief  veto  sent  to  the  council  yesterday  by  Mayor 
Cleveland.  It  is  refreshing  to  read  the  message.  Appropriations  of  the  public  funds 
must  not  be  made  except  in  accordance  with  law.  Safeguards  provided  by  the 
Constitution  and  the  charter  must  be  respected.  The  money  raised  by  taxation 
must  not  be  diverted  from  its  legitimate  objects.  However  worthy  the  sentiment 
recognized  in  any  misappropriation,  justice,  not  generosity  must  prevail.  When 
the  council  wrongfully  votes  away  the  people's  money  there  is  no  credit  in  the  act, 
because  the  money,  having  been  extorted  from  the  people,  is  not  a  free  gift  from 
that  body.  The  city  government  is  a  business  establishment,  and  must  be  con- 
ducted on  business  principles.  All  these  golden  rules  are  laid  down  in  disap- 
proving a  vote  of  $500  for  Decoration  Day — a  small  sum  for  a  worthy  object ;  but, 
as  the  Mayor  shows,  it  is  not  for  the  amount  of  the  appropriation  nor  the  merit  of 
it,  but  the  principle  involved,  which  must  be  considered.  Private  bounty  ought 
to  be  equal  to  such  a  call ;  and  then  to  prove  that  he  thinks  so,  Mr.  Cleveland 


46  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

privately  contributes  one-tenth  of  the  whole  sum  needed,  thus  supplementing 
excellent  principle  by  liberal  example. 

A  Famous  Utterance. 

The  most  famous  of  his  utterances  upon  this  subject,  and  that  in  knowledge  of 
which  a  few  months  later  he  was  nominated  and  elected  to  be  Governor  of  New 
York,  was  his  celebrated  check  upon  an  extravagant  contract  for  cleaning  the 
streets  of  Buffalo,  which  was  as  follows  : 

"Buffalo,  June  26,  1882. 

"I  return  without  my  approval  the  resolution  of  your  honorable  body,  passed 
at  its  last  meeting,  awarding  the  contracts  for  cleaning  the  paved  streets  and  alleys 
of  the  city  for  the  ensuing  five  years  to at  his  bid  of  four  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars. 

"  The  bid  thus  accepted  by  your  honorable  body  is  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  higher  than  that  of  another  perfectly  responsible  party  for  the 
same  work  ;  and  a  worse  and  more  suspicious  feature  in  this  transaction  is  that  the 

bid  now  accepted  is  fifty  thousand  dollars  more  than  that  made  by himself 

within  a  very  few  weeks,  openly  and  publicly  to  your  honorable  body,  for 
performing  precisely  the  same  services.  This  latter  circumstance  is  to  my  mind 
the  manifestation  on  the  part  of  the  contractor  of  a  reliance  upon  the  forbearance 
and  generosity  of  your  honorable  body,  which  would  be  more  creditable  if  it  were 
less  expensive  to  the  tax-payers. 

' '  I  am  not  aware  that  any  excuse  is  offered  for  the  acceptance  of  this  proposal, 
thus  increased,  except  the  very  flimsy  one  that  the  lower  bidders  cannot  afford  to 
do  the  work  for  the  sums  they  name. 

"This  extreme  tenderness  and  consideration  for  those  who  desire  to  contract 
with  the  city,  and  this  touching  and  paternal  solicitude  lest  they  should  be  improvi- 
dently  led  into  a  bad  bargain  is,  I  am  sure,  an  exception  to  general  business  rules, 
and  seems  to  have  no  place  in  this  selfish,  sordid  world,  except  as  found  in  the 
administration  of  municipal  affairs. 

' '  The  charter  of  your  city  requires  that  the  Mayor,  when  he  disapproves  any 
resolution  of  your  honorable  body,  shall  return  the  same  with  his  objections. 

"  This  is  a  time  for  plain  speech,  and  my  objection  to  the  action  of  your  honor- 
able body  now  under  consideration  shall  be  plainly  stated.  I  withhold  my  assent 
from  the  same,  because  I  regard  it  as  the  culmination  of  a  most  barefaced,  impu- 
dent and  shameless  scheme  to  betray  the  interests  of  the  people  and  to  worse  than 
squander  the  public  money. 

' '  I  will  not  be  misunderstood  in  this  matter.  There  are  those  w hose  votes 
were  given  for  this  resolution  whom  I  cannot  and  will  not  suspect  of  a  willful  neg- 
lect of  the  interests  they  are  sworn  to  protect ;  but  it  has  been  fully  demonstrated 
that  there  are  influences,  both  in  and  about  your  honorable  body,  which  it  behooves 
every  honest  man  to  watch  and  avoid  with  the  greatest  care. 

' '  When  cool  judgment  rules  the  hour,  the  people  will,  I  hope  and  believe,  have 
no  reason  to  complain  of  the  action  of  your  honorable  body.  But  clumsy  appeals 
to  prejudice  or  passion,  insinuations,  with  a  kind  of  low,  cheap  cunning,  as  to  the 
motives  and  purposes  of  others,  and  the  mock  heroism  of  brazen  effrontery  which 
openly  declares  that  a  wholesome  public  sentiment  is  to  be  set  at  naught,  some- 
times deceives  and  leads  honest  men  to  aid  in  the  consummation  of  schemes  which, 
if  exposed,  they  would  look  upon  with  abhorrence. 

' '  If  the  scandal  in  connection  with  the  street-cleaning  contract,  which  has  so 
aroused  our  citizens,  shall  cause  them  to  select  and  watch  with  more  care  those  to 
whom  they  intrust  their  interests,  and  if  it  serves  to  make  all  of  us  who  are  charged 
with  official  duties  more  careful  in  their  performance,  it  will  not  be  an  unmitigated 
evil. 

' '  We  are  fast  gaining  positions  in  the  grades  of  public  stewardship.  There  is 
no  middle  ground.  Those  who  are  not  for  the  people  either  in  or  out  of  your 
honorable  body  are  against  them,  and  should  be  treated  accordingly. 

"  GROVER  CLEVELAND, 

"Mayor." 

In  view  of  such  expressions  and  actions  as  these,  the  leading  Republican  news- 
paper of  Buffalo,  now  supporting  the  Republican  ticket,  was  led  to  say  upon  the 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  47 

day  succeeding  Governor  Cleveland's  resignation  as  Mayor,  that  ' '  yesterday  Buf- 
falo lost  the  best  Mayor  she  ever  had."       % 

Elected  upon  this  record  to  the  high  office  of  Governor,  public  expectation 
demanded  of  him  as  Governor  a  continuance  of  his  course  as  Mayor.  This  senti- 
ment, every^ore  felt,  was  enthusiastically  expressed  by  the  Hon.  Roswell  P. 
Flower,  upon  the  night  of  the  election  of  1882,  when,  in  public  speech,  he  said  : 

"  This  victory  is  the  voice  of  the  people  speaking  in  thunder  tones.  What 
does  it  mean  ?  *  *  *  It  says  to  Grover  Cleveland  :  '  We  will  inaugurate  you  ; 
we  expect  you  to  faithfully  carry  out  the  platform  of  your  party.  If  you  give  us 
the  strict  accountability  of  officials  ;  pure  civil  service  ;  purity  of  elections  ;  if 
you  use  your  office  as  you  would  a  private  trust,  and  the  moneys  as  trust  funds  ; 
if  you  faithfully  perform  your  duty,  we,  the  people,  may  put  you  in  the  presi- 
dential chair.'" 

In  administration  of  this  high  office,  Governor  Cleveland  has  come  fully  up  to 
the  line  marked  out  for  him,  and  has  fitly  continued  the  course  commenced  at 
Buffalo. 

Outlir\ii\g  his  Policy  as  Governor. 

His  first  message  to  the  Legislature  concluded  in  these  words  : 
■ '  Let  us  enter  upon  the  discharge  of  our  duties,  fully  appreciating  our  relations 
to  the  people,  and  determined  to  serve  them  faithfully  and  well.  This  involves  a 
jealous  watch  of  the  public  funds,  and  a  refusal  to  sanction  their  appropriation 
except  for  public  needs.  To  this  end  all  unnecessary  offices  should  be  abolished, 
and  all  employment  of  doubtful  benefit  discontinued.  If  to  this  we  add  the  en- 
actment of  such  wise  and  well  considered  laws  as  will  meet  the  varied  wants  of 
our  fellow-citizens  and  increase  their  prosperity,  we  shall  merit  and  receive  the 
approval  of  those  whose  representatives  we  are,  and  with  the  consciousness  of 
duty  well  performed,  shall  leave  our  impress  for  good  on  the  legislation  of  the 
State." 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  this  he  was  called  upon  to  consider  again  almost  the 
same  question  as  that  treated  in  his  veto  message  of  the  Decoration  Day  appropria- 
tion in  Buffalo  in  1882.  That  message,  winch  had  been  widely  published,  pre- 
ceded his  election  as  Governor  by  an  unparalleled  majority.  His  established  posi- 
tion, thus  accepted  and  approved  by  the  people,  could  not  be  abandoned  simply 
because  he  had  entered  a  new  sphere  of  action.  Chosen  because  esteemed  capable 
to  strictly  administer  the  laws,  he  could  not,  even  upon  the  inspiration  of  a  patri- 
otic sentiment,  desert  the  principle  of  rigid  application  of  public  funds  to  gover- 
mental  purposes,  and  he  therefore  hewed  straight  to  the  line  of  strict  accountability 
already  marked  out  by  him  and  for  him,  and  sent  to  the  Assembly  the  following 
communication : 

"  State  of  New  York,  Executive  Chamber,  ) 
"  Albany,  February  12,  1883.  J 

"  lo  the  Assembly  : 

"Assembly  bill  ISTo.  88.  entitled  'An  act  authorizing  the  Board  of  Supervisors 
of  Chautauqua  county  to  appropriate  money  for  the  purchase  of  lands  upon  which 
to  erect  a  soldiers'  and  sailors'  monument,"  is  herewith  returned  without  approval. 
"  It  is  not  an  agreeable  duty  to  refuse  to  give  sanction  to  the  appropriation  of 
money  for  such  a  worthy  and  patriotic  object ;  but  I  cannot  forget  that  the  money 
proposed  to  be  appropriated  is  public  money  to  be  raised  by  taxation,  and  that  all 
that  justifies  its  exaction  from  the  people  is  the  necessity  of  its  use  for  purposes 
connected  with  the  safety  and  substantial  welfare  of  the  tax-payers. 

' '  The  application  of  this  principle  furnishes,  I  think,  a  sufficient  reason  why 
this  bill  should  not  be  approved. 

' '  I  am  of  the  opinion,  too,  that  the  appropriation  of  this  money  by  the  Board 
of  Supervisors  would  constitute  the  incurring  of  an  indebtedness  by  the  County  to 
be  thereafter  met  by  taxation.  If  this  be  true,  the  proposed  legislation  is  forbidden 
by  section  eleven  of  article  eight  of  the   Constitution,  which  provides  that  no 


48  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

county,  city,  town  or  village  shall  be  allowed  to  incur  any  indebtedness  except  for 
county,  city,  town  or  village  purposes.    4 

"  Before  this  prohibition  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  a  statute  was  passed 
permitting  monuments  to  be  erected  to  fallen  soldiers  at  the  expense  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  county  within  which  they  were  located  ;  but  the  expenditure  of  money 
raised  by  taxation  for  such  a  purpose  was  only  allowed  when  especially  sanctioned 
by  the  vote  of  a  majority  of  all  the  electors  of  the  county.  In  the  bill  under  con- 
sideration the  taxpayers  are  not  permitted  to  be  heard  on  the  subject. 

"It  is  thus  evident  that  the  legislation  proposed  guards  less  the  rights  and 
interests  of  the  people  than  the  statute  passed  before  the  Constitutional  amendment 
prohibited  all  enactments  of  this  description. 

"  I  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  to  express  the  hope  that  a  due  regard  to  funda- 
mental principles  and  a  strict  adherence  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution, 
which  furnish  the  limit  as  well  as  the  guide  to  legislation,  will  prevent  the  passage 
of  bills  of  this  nature  in  the  future." 

Within  a  week,  however,  the  Governor  was  obliged  to  veto,  as  violative  of  the 
same  principle,  a  bill  to  authorize  certain  towns  in  Jefferson  and  St.  Lawrence 
counties  to  relieve  their  railroad  stocks  from  existing  liens.  Certain  stock  of  the 
Black  River  and  Morristown  Railroad  Company  being  held  by  certain  towns,  it 
was  the  design  of  the  bill  (as  stated  to  and  by  the  Governor), 

"  To  use  the  money  which  under  its  provisions  is  to  be  raised  by  tax  to  pay 
certain  indebtedness  of  the  said  railroad  company,  in  the  expectation  that  thereby 
a  consolidation  of  its  road  with  the  Utica  and  Black  River  Railroad  may  be 
effected.  By  this  means  it  is  hoped  that  the  stock  in  the  Black  River  and  Morris- 
town  Railroad  Company,  to  which  the  towns  mentioned  have  subscribed,  may  be 
made  more  valuable. 

"lam  of  the  opinion,  that  the  bill  if  approved,  would  not  justify  such  an 
expenditure  of  the  money  proposed  to  be  raised. 

"  In  this  view,  the  legislation  sought  would  be  of  no  avail. 

"If  the  bill  does  permit  such  an  application  of  public  funds,  it  seems  to  be  in 
direct  contravention  of  the  Constitution,  which  provides  that  no  town  shall  give 
any  money  or  property,  or  loan  its  money  or  credit,  to  or  in  aid  of  any  individual, 
association  or  corporation." 

Zealous  *  Watchfulness. 

His  zealous  watchfulness  over  the  public  funds  has  been  not  merely  in  respect 
of  moneys  or  property  already  acquired,  but  has  served  to  secure  and  preserve 
rights  of  the  State  to  receive  money,  as  in  the  case  of  his  veto  of  the  bill  to  authorize 
a  compromise  with  the  sureties  of  a  defaulting  debtor  to  the  State.  In  that  message 
he  said  as  follows  : 

' '  The  persons  who  seek  to  be  relieved  under  this  bill  signed  a  bond  to  the  State 
for  the  safe  keeping  and  repayment  on  demand  of  certain  moneys  deposited  in 
behalf  of  the  State  in  the  First  National  Bank  of  Buffalo. 

"  The  bank  has  failed  and  is  unable  to  refund  the  State's  deposits.  The  securi- 
ties in  the  bond  have  thus  become  liable  to  pay  the  money,  and  I  can  see  no 
reason  why  they  should  be  relieved. 

"  I  am  willing  to  do  what  I  can  to  check  the  growing  impression  that  contracts 
with  the  State  will  not  be  insisted  upon  or  may  be  evaded.  The  money  deposited 
with  the  bank  was  public  money  belonging  to  the  people,  and  I  regard  it  the  duty 
of  all  having  the  care  of  State  affairs  to  see  to  it  that  no  part  is  lost  by  an  improper 
indulgence  to  those  who  have  agreed  that  it  should  be  safely  kept." 

Similarly  he  vetoed  a  bill  to  authorize  the  Comptroller  to  sell  a  judgment 
obtained  by  loan  commissioners.     He  said  : 

"This  bill  originates  in  the  desire  of  a  certain  judgment  creditor,  to  procure  the 
judgment  owned  by  the  State,  to  aid  him  in  the  collection  of  his  debt.  If  the 
judgment  is  of  value,  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  be 
enforced  for  the  benefit  of  the  State  in  the  ordinary  way. 

"  I  have  full  faith  in  the  care  and  caution  of  the  Comptroller ;  but  there  is  no 
guaranty  that,  if  this  bill  becomes  a  law,  a  sum  will  be  offered  for  which  the  judg- 
ment should  be  transferred,  in  which  case  its  enactment  will  be  useless. 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  49 

"  If  it  is  thought  best  to  dispose  of  this  judgment,  there  should  be  a  sum  fixed 
in  the  bill  based  upon  an  offer  made,  upon  the  payment  of  which  an  assignment 
of  the  same  should  be  directed." 

If  to  any,  it  may  seem  that  such  matters  are  unimportant,  the  answer  is  that 
by  allowing  no  objectionable  provision  to  escape  attention  and  disapproval  has 
Governor  Cleveland  established  the  reputation  which  deters  attempts  under  any 
guise  upon  the  public  treasury  for  private  ends. 

In  the  supply  bill  for  1883,  Governor  Cleveland  found  twenty-seven  items, 
aggregating  $250,704.36,  which  he  vetoed  under  the  application  of  his  principle  to 
appropriate  public  money  for  necessary  public  purposes  only. 

In  his  second  year  as  Governor  his  course  has  been  maintained  upon  the  high 
level  on  which  he  set  out;  though  in  consequence  of  his  first  year's  record  upon 
this  point  he  has  less  frequently  been  called  upon  to  enforce  his  views  upon  legis- 
lative attention.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  reproduce  his  second  series  of  papers 
concerning  this  subject.  Their  key-note  has  always  been  the  same  :  expenditures 
of  public  moneys  must  be  restricted  to  the  purposes  of  government. 


Taxation. 


Closely  connected  with  his  declarations  as  to  public  expenditure  may  be  con- 
sidered his  views  as  to  public  taxation. 
In  his  first  annual  message,  he  said : 

"  The  imperfection  of  our  laws  touching  the  matter  of  taxation,  or  the  faulty 
execution  of  existing  statutes  on  the  subject,  is  glaringly  apparent. 

' '  The  power  of  the  State  to  exact  from  the  citizen  a  part  of  his  earnings  and 
income  for  the  support  of  the  Government,  it  is  obvious  should  be  executed  with 
absolute  fairness  and  justice.  When  it  is  not  so  exercised,  the  people  are 
oppressed.  This  furnishes  the  highest  and  the  best  reason  why  laws  should  be 
enacted  and  executed  which  will  subject  all  property,  as  all  alike  need  the  protection 
of  the  State,  to  an  equal  share  in  the  burdens  of  taxation,  by  means  of  which  the 
Government  is  maintained." 

And  in  his  second  year,  greatly  amplifying  the  treatment  of  this  subject,  he 
thus  expressed  himself : 

' '  The  subject  of  taxation  still  remains  a  vexed  question  ;  and  the  injustice  and 
discrimination  apparent  in  our  laws  on  this  subject,  as  well  as  the  methods  of 
their  execution,  call  loudly  for  relief.  There  is  no  object  so  worthy  of  the  care 
and  attention  of  the  Legislature  as  this.  Strict  economy  in  the  management  of 
State  affairs,  by  their  agents,  should  furnish  the  people  a  good  government  at  the 
least  possible  cost.  This  is  common  honesty.  But  to  see  to  it  that  this  cost  is 
fairly  and  justly  distributed  and  the  burden  equally  borne  bv  those  who  have  no 
peaceful  redress  if  the  State  is  unjust,  is  the  best  attribute  of  sovereignty  and  the 
highest  duty  to  the  citizen.  The  recognition  of  this  duty  characterizes  a  benefi- 
cent government,  but  its  repudiation  marks  the  oppression  of  tyrannical  power. 
The  taxpayer  need  not  wait  till  his  burden  is  greater  than  he  can  bear  for  just 
cause  of  complaint.  However  small  his  tax,  h£  may  reasonably  protest,  if  it 
represents  more  than  his  share  of  the  public  burden,  and  the  State  neglects  all 
efforts  to  apply  a  remedy. 

"  The  tendency  of  our  prosperity  is  in  the  direction  of  the  accumulation  of 
immense  fortunes,  largely  invested  in  personal  property  ;  and  yet  its  aggregate  valu- 
ation, as  fixed  for  the  purpose  of  taxation,  is  constantly  decreased,  while  that  of 
real  estate  is  increased.  For  the  year  1882  the  valuation  of  personal  property  sub- 
ject to  taxation  was  determined  at  $351,021,189,  and  real  estate  at  $2,432,661,379. 
In  1883  the  assessed  valuation  of  personal  property  was  fixed  at  $315,039,085,  and 
real  estate  $2,557,218,240. 

"  The  present  law  permits,  in  the  case  of  personal  property,  the  indebtedness 
of  its  possessor  to  be  deducted  from  its  value,  and  allows  no  such  deduction  in  favor 
of  real  estate,  though  it  be  represented  by  a  mortgage  which  is  a  specific  lien  upon 


50  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

such  real  estate.  Personal  property,  in  need  more  than  any  other  of  the  protection 
of  the  government,  when  discovered,  escapes  taxation  to  the  extent  of  its 
owners'  indebtedness,  though  such  indebtedness  is  based  upon  the  ordinary  credit 
in  the  transaction  of  business,  or  is  fictitious  and  manufactured  for  the  temporary 
purpose  of  evading  taxation.  But  real  property,  the  existence  of  which  cannot  be 
concealed,  is,  in  contemplation  of  the  law,  taxed  according  to  its  full  valuation, 
though  the  incumbrance  upon  it  easily  divests  the  owner  of  his  title,  though  the 
interest  and  perhaps  part  of  the  principal  must,  as  well  as  the  tax,  annually  be 
met,  and  though  if  sold  the  amount  due  upon  this  lien  must  always  be  deducted 
from  any  sum  agreed  upon  as  the  price  of  the  land. 

"  This  statement  does  not  necessarily  lead  to  a  deduction  of  the  amount  of  any 
incumbrance  upon  real  estate  from  its  valuation  for  the  purpose  of  taxation  ;  but 
it  does  suggest  that  both  real  and  personal  property  should  be  placed  upon  the  same 
footing,  by  abolishing,  in  all  cases,  any  deduction  for  debts.  This  amendment, 
with  some  others  regulating  the  manner  in  which  local  assessors  should  perform 
their  duties,  would  do  much  towards  ridding  our  present  system  of  its  imperfections. 

"  If  measures  more  radical  in  their  nature,  having  for  their  object  the  exaction 
of  taxes  which  are  justly  due,  should  be  deemed  wise,  I  hope  their  passage  will  not 
be  prevented  under  the  specious  pretext  that  the  means  proposed  are  inquisitorial 
and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions.  The  object  is  to  preserve  the  honor 
of  the  State  in  its  dealing  with  the  citizen,  to  prevent  the  rich,  by  shirking  taxation, 
from  adding  to  the  burdens  of  the  poor,  and  to  relieve  the  landholder  from  unjust 
discrimination.  The  spirit  of  our  institutions  dictates  that  this  endeavor  should  be 
pursued  in  a  manner  free  from  all  demagogism,  but  with  the  determination  to  use 
every  necessary  means  to  accomplish  the  result." 

And,  viewing  the  position  of  New  York  in  the  midst  of  her  sister  States,  he 
concluded  : 

' '  The  State  of  New  York  largely  represents  within  her  borders  the  development 
of.  every  interest  which  makes  a  nation  great.  Proud  of  her  place  as  leader  in  the 
community  of  States,  she  fully  appreciates  her  intimate  relations  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  country  ;  and  justly  realizing  the  responsibility  of  her  position,  she  recognizes, 
in  her  policy  and  her  laws,  as  of  first  importance,  the  freedom  of  commerce  from 
all  unnecessary  restrictions.  Her  citizens  have  assumed  the  burden  of  maintaining 
at  their  own  cost  and  free  to  commerce,  the  waterway  which  they  have  built,  and 
through  which  the  products  of  the  great  West  are  transported  to  the  seaboard.  At 
the  suggestion  of  danger  she  hastens  to  save  her  northern  forests,  and  thus  preserve 
to  commerce  her  canals  and  vessel-laden  rivers.  The  State  has  become  responsible 
for  a  bureau  of  immigration,  which  cares  for  those  who  seek  our  shores  from  other 
lands,  adding  to  the  nation's  population  and  hastening  to  the  development  of  its 
vast  domain  ;  while  at  the  country's  gateway  a  quarantine,  established  by  the  State, 
protects  the  nation's  health. 

' '  Surely  this  great  commonwealth,  committed  fully  to  the  interests  of  commerce 
and  all  that  adds  to  the  country's  prosperity,  may  well  inquire  how  her  efforts  and 
sacrifices  have  been  answered  ;  and  she,  of  all  the  States,  may  urge  that  the  interests 
thus  by  her  protected,  should,  by  the  greater  government  administered  for  all,  be 
fostered  for  the  benefit  of  the  American  people. 

' '  Fifty  years  ago  a  most  distinguished  foreigner,  who  visited  this  country  and 
studied  its  condition  and  prospects,  wrote  : 

' '  When  I  contemplate  the  ardor  with  which  the  Americans  prosecute  commerce, 
the  advantages  which  aid  them,  and  the  success  of  their  undertakings,  I  cannot 
help  believing  that  they  will  oneway  become  the  first  maritime  power  of  the  globe. 
They  are  bound  to  rule  the  seas  as  the  Romans  were  to  conquer  the  world.  *  *  * 
The  Americans  themselves  now  transport  to  their  own  shores  nine-tenths  of  the 
European  produce  which  they  consume,  and  they  also  bring  three-fourths  of  the 
exports  of  the  New  World  to  the  European  consumers.  The  ships  of  the  United 
States  fill  the  docks  of  Havre  and  Liverpool,  whilst  the  number  of  English  and 
French  vessels  which  are  to  be  seen  at  New  York  is  comparatively  small. 

"We  turn  to  the  actual  results  reached  since  these  words  were  written,  with 
disappointment. 

"  In  1840  American  vessels  carried  eighty -two  and  nine-tenths  per  cent,  of  all 
our  exports  and  imports  ;  in  1850,  seventy-two  and  five-tenths  ;  in  1860,  sixty-six 
and  five-tenths ;  in  1870,  thirty-five  and  six-tenths  ;  in  1880,  seventeen  and  four- 
tenths  ;  in  1882,  fifteen  and  five-tenths. 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  51 

"'  The  citizen  of  New  York,  looking  beyond  his  State,  and  all  her  efforts  in  the 
interest  of  commerce  and  national  growth,  will  naturally  inquire  concerning  the 
causes  of  this  decadence  of  American  shipping. 

"While  he  sternly  demands  of  his  own  government  the  exact  limitation  of 
taxation  by  the  needs  of  the  State,  he  will  challenge  the  policy  that  accumulates 
millions  of  useless  and  unnecessary  surplus  in  the  national  treasury,  which  has 
been  not  less  a  tax  because  it  was  indirectly  and  surely  added  to  the  cost  of  the 
people's  life. 

"  Let  us  anticipate  a  time  when  care  for  the  people's  needs,  as  they  actually 
arise,  and  the  application  of  remedies,  as  wrongs  appear,  shall  lead  in  the  conduct 
of  national  affairs  ;  and  let  us  undertake  the  business  of  legislation  with  the  full 
determination  that  these  principles  shall  guide  us  in  the  performance  of  our  duties 
as  guardians  of  the  interests  of  the  State." 

To  the  people  of  the  Nation  not  less  than  of  the  State  do  these  wise  and 
patriotic  words  give  assurance  to  the  liberal  and  statesmanlike  views  of  Grover 
Cleveland,  fitted  by  native  character  and  study  to  administer  the  highest  public 
office. 


Reform  Legislation  for  New  York  City. 


Reform  in  the  administration  of  the  government  of  New  York  City  has  been 
the  subject  of  agitation  for  many  years.  Indeed,  tinkering  with  the  charters  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  State,  either  in  the  interest  of  or  against  their  citizens,  has 
occupied  the  time  principally  of  successive  sessions  of  the  Legislature.  But  it 
was  not  until  the  session  of  1884  that  any  well-considered  scheme  which  went  to 
the  root  of  the  evil  was  presented.  To  the  furtherance  of  these  measures  Governor 
Cleveland  gave  all  the  aid  he  could,  and  most  of  them  to-day  are  laws  of  the 
State,  and  those  which  are  not — two — are  not  so  only  because  they  were  so 
carelessly  drafted  that  they  defeated  in  themselves  the  purposes  they  sought  to 
accomplish. 

Reform  Bills. 

These  bills  are  : 

The  bill  entitled  "  An  act  to  centre  responsibility  in  the  municipal  government 
of  the  city  of  New  York." 

The  bill  entitled  ' '  An  act  in  relation  to  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the  city  and 
county  of  New  York." 

The  bill  entitled  ' '  An  act  in  relation  to  the  office  of  Surrogate  of  the  county 
■of  New  York." 

The  bill  entitled  ' '  An  action  in  relation  to  the  office  of  the  Register  of  the  city 
and  county  of  New  York." 

The  bill  entitled  "  An  act  to  regulate  and  provide  for  certain  expenses  of  con- 
ducting the  office  of  sheriff  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York. " 

The  bill  entitled  "An  act  to  provide  for  a  more  efficient  government  for  the 
departments  of  Parks  in  the  city  of  New  York  ;"  and 

The  bill  entitled  "An  act  to  fix  and  regulate  the  terms  of  office  of  certain 
public  officers  in  the  city  of  New  York,"  more  commonly  known  as  the  "  Tenure 
of  Office  Bill." 

This  list  embraces  all  of  the  bills  known  as  the  "  New  York  Reform  Bills  "— 
seven  in  all,  five  of  which  were  signed  and  two  not  approved,  for  reasons  which 
will  be  given  hereafter. 


52  PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

The  Mayor's  Bill. 

The  first  of  these  bills  is  the  one  known  variously  as  the  "Mayor's,"  the 
"  Aldermanic, "  or  the  "  Mayoralty  responsibility  bill."     It  is  as  follows  : 

AN  ACT  to  centre  responsibility  in  the  Municipal  Government  of  the  City  of 

New  York. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact 
as  follows : 

Section  1.  All  appointments  to  office  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  made  by 
the  Mayor  and  confirmed  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  shall  hereafter  be  made  by 
the  Mayor  without  such  confirmation. 

§  2.  This  act  shall  take  effect  January  1,  1885. 

The  bill  was  promptly  signed  by  the  Governor,  who  filed  with  it  the  following- 
reasons  for  his  act : 

Accompanying  the  Signing  of  the  Mayor's  Bill. 

"Executive  Chamber,  Albany,  March  17,  1884. 

"  The  interest  which  has  been  aroused  regarding  the  merits  of  this  bill,  and 
quite  a  determined  hostility  which  has  been  developed  on  the  part  of  those 
entitled  to  respectful  consideration,  appear  to  justify  a  brief  reference  to  the  prin- 
ciples and  purposes  which  seem  to  me  to  be  involved  in  the  measure,  and  an  inci- 
dental statement  of  the  process  of  thought  by  which  I  have  been  led  to  approve 
the  same. 

' '  The  opponents  of  the  bill  have  invoked  the  inviolability  of  the  right  of  the 
people  to  rule  themselves,  and  have  insisted  upon  the  preservation  of  a  wise 
distribution  of  power  among  the  different  branches  of  government;  and  I  have 
listened  to  solemn  warning  against  the  subversive  tendency  of  the  concentration 
of  power  in  municipal  rule,  and  the  destructive  consequences  of  any  encroachment 
upon  the  people's  rights  and  prerogatives. 

"  I  hope  I  have  not  entirely  misconceived  the  scope  and  reach  of  this  bill;  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  my  determination  as  to  whether  or  not  it  should  become  a  law 
does  not  depend  upon  the  reverence  I  entertain  for  such  fundamental  principles. 

"The  question  is  not  whether  certain  officers  heretofore  elected  by  the  people 
of  the  City  of  New  York  shall,  under  the  provisions  of  a  new  law,  be  appointed. 
The  transfer  of  power  from  an  election  by  the  people  to  an  appointment  by  other 
authority,  has  already  been  made. 

' '  The  present  charter  of  the  city  provides  that  the  mayor  '  shall  nominate,  and 
by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  board  of  aldermen  appoint  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments.' 

"  The  bill  under  consideration  provides  that  after  the  1st  day  of  January,  1885, 
'  all  appointments  to  office  in  the  City  of  New  York  now  made  by  the  mayor  and 
confirmed  by  the  board  ef  aldermen  shall  be  made  by  the  mayor  without  such 
onfirmation.' 

"  The  change  proposed  is  clearly  apparent. 

"By  the  present  charter  the  mayor,  elected  by  all  the  people  of  the  city,  if  a 
majority  of  twenty-four  aldermen  elected  by  the  voters  of  twenty -four  separate 
districts  concur  with  him,  may  appoint  the  administrative  officers  who  shall  have 
charge  and  management  of  the  city  departments. 

"The  bill  presented  for  my  action  allows  the  mayor  alone  to  appoint  these 
officers.  This  authority  is  not  conferred  upon  the  mayor  now  in  office,  who  was 
chosen  without  anticipation  on  the  part  of  the  people  who  elected  him,  that  he 
should  exercise  this  power,  but  upon  the  incoming  mayor  who,  after  the  passage 
of  the  act,  shall  be  elected  with  the  full  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  people,  at 
the  time  they  cast  their  votes,  that  they  are  constituting  an  agent  to  act  for  them 
in  the  selec  ion  of  certain  other  city  officers. 

"  This  selection  under  either  statute  is  delegated  by  the  people.  In  the  one 
case  it  is  exercised  by  the  chief  executive  acting  with  twenty-four  officers  repre- 
senting as  many  different  sections  of  the  municipality  ;  in  the  other  by  the  chief 
executive  alone* 

"I  cannot  see  that  any  principle  of  democratic  rule  is  more  violated  in  the  one 
case  than  in  the  other.     It  appears  to  be  a  mere  change  of  instrumentalities. 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND.  53 

"  It  will  hardly  do  to  say  that  because  the  aldermen  are  elected  annually,  and 
the  mayor  every  two  years,  that  the  former  are  nearer  the  people  and  more  especi- 
ally their  representatives.  The  difference  in  their  terms  is  not  sufficient  to  make  a 
distinction  in  their  direct  relations  to  the  citizen. 

"  Nor  are  the  rights  of  the  people  to  self  government  in  theory  and  principle 
better  protected  when  the  power  of  appointment  is  vested  in  twenty-five  men, 
twenty-four  of  whom  are  responsible  only  to  their  constituents  in  their  respective 
districts,  than  when  this  power  is  put  in  the  hands  of  one  man  elected  by  all  the 
people  of  the  municipality  with  particular  reference  to  the  exercise  of  such  power. 
Indeed,  in  the  present  condition  of  affairs,  if  disagreement  arises  between  the  mayor 
and  the  aldermen,  the  selection  of  officers  by  the  representative  of  all  the  people 
might  be  defeated  by  the  adverse  action  of  thirteen  representatives  of  thirteen 
aldermanic  districts.  And  it  is  perfectly  apparent  that  these  thirteen  might,  and 
often  would,  represent  a  decided  minority  of  the  people  of  the  municipality. 

"  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  an  arrangement  which  permits  such  a  result  is  pre- 
eminently democratic. 

' '  It  has  been  urged  that  the  proposed  change  is  opposed  to  the  principle  of 
home  rule.  If  it  is  intended  to  claim  that  the  officers,  the  creation  of  which  is 
provided  for,  should  be  elected,  it  has  no  relevancy  ;  for  that  question  is  not  in 
any  manner  presented  for  my  determination.  And  it  surely  cannot  be  said  that 
the  doctrine  of  home  rule  prevents  any  change  by  the  Legislature  of  the  organic 
law  of  municipalities.  The  people  of  the  city  cannot  themselves  make  such 
change  ;  and  if  legislative  aid  cannot  be  invoked  to  that  end,  it  follows  that  abuses, 
flagrant  and  increasing,  must  be  continued,  and  existing  charter  provisions,  the 
inadequacy  of  which  for  the  protection  and  prosperity  of  the  people  is  freely  ad- 
mitted, must  be  perpetuated.  It  is  the  interference  of  the  Legislature  with  the 
administration  of  municipal  government,  by  agencies  arbitrarily  created  by  legis- 
lative enactment,  and  the  assumption  by  the  law-making  power  of  the  State,  of 
the  rights  to  regulate  such  details  of  city  government  as  are  or  should  be  under 
the  supervision  of  local  authorities,  that  should  be  condemned  as  a  violation  of  the 
doctrine  of  home  rule. 

**  In  any  event  I  am  convinced  that  I  should  not  disapprove  the  bill  before  me 
on  the  ground  that  it  violates  any  principle  which  is  now  recognized  and  exempli- 
fied in  the  government  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

"  I  am  also  satisfied  that  as  between  the  system  now  prevailing  and  that  pro- 
posed, expediency  and  a  close  regard  to  improved  municipal  administration  lead  to 
my  approval  of  the  measure. 

' '  If  the  chief  executive  of  the  city  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  its  order  and 
good  government,  he  should  not  be  hampered  by  any  interference  with  his  selec- 
tion of  subordinate  administrative  officers  ;  nor  should  he  be  permitted  to  find  in  a 
divided  responsibility  an  excuse  for  any  neglect  of  the  best  interests  of  the  people. 

' '  The  plea  should  never  be  heard  that  a  bad  nomination  had  been  made  be- 
cause it  was  the  only  one  that  could  secure  confirmation. 

' '  No  instance  has  been  cited  in  which  a  bad  appointment  has  been  prevented 
by  the  refusal  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  New  York  to  confirm  a 
nomination. 

' '  An  absolute  and  undivided  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  appointing  power 
accords  with  correct  business  principles,  the  application  of  which  to  public  affairs 
will  always,  I  believe,  direct  the  way  to  good  administration  and  the  protection  of 
the  people's  interests. 

' '  The  intelligence  and  watchfulness  of  the  citizens  of  New  York  should  cer- 
tainly furnish  a  safe  guaranty  that  the  duties  and  powers  devolved  by  this  legisla- 
tion upon  their  chosen  representative,  will  be  well  and  wisely  bestowed  ;  and  if 
they  err  or  are  betrayed,  their  remedy  is  close  at  hand. 

"  I  can  hardly  realize  the  unprincipled  boldness  of  the  man  who  would  accept 
at  the  hands  of  his  neighbors  this  sacred  trust,  and  standing  alone  in  the  full  light 
of  public  observation,  should  willfully  prostitute  his  powers  and  defy  the  will  of  the 
people. 

"  To  say  that  such  a  man  could  by  such  means  perpetuate  his  wicked  rule,  con- 
cedes either  that  the  people  are  vile  or  that  self-government  is  a  deplorable  failure. 

"It  is  claimed  that  because  some  of  these  appointees  become  members  of  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment,  which  determines  very  largely  the  amount 
of  taxation,  therefore  the  power  to  select  them  frrcmld  not  be  given  to  the  mayor. 
If  the  question  presented  was  whether  officials  buying  such  important  duties  and 


54  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

functions  should  be  elected  by  the  people  or  appointed,  such  a  consideration 
might  well  be  urged  in  favor  of  their  election.  But  they  are  now  appointed,  and 
they  will  remain  appointed  whether  the  proposed  bill  should  be  rejected  or  ap- 
proved. This  being  the  situation,  the  importance  of  the  duties  to  be  performed  by 
these  officials  has  to  do  with  the  care  to  be  exercised  in  their  selection,  rather 
than  the  choice  between  the  two  modes  of  appointment  which  are  under  considera- 
tion. 

"  For  some  time  prior  to  the  year  1872,  these  appointments  were  made  by  the 
mayor  without  confirmation,  as  is  contemplated  by  the  bill  now  before  me.  In 
that  year  a  measure  passed  the  Legislature  giving  the  power  of  appointment  to 
the  common  council.  The  chief  executive  of  the  State  at  that  time  was  a  careful 
and  thorough  student  of  municipal  affairs,  having  large  and  varied  experience  in 
public  life.  He  refused  to  approve  the  bill,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a 
departure  from  the  principle  which  should  be  applied  to  the  administration  of  the 
affairs  of  the  city,  and  for  the  reason  that  the  mayor  should  be  permitted  to  ap- 
point the  subordinate  administrative  officers  without  the  interference  of  any  other 
authority. 

"  This  reference  to  the  treatment  of  the  subject  by  one  of  my  distinguished  pre- 
decessors in  office,  affords  me  the  opportunity  to  quote  from  his  able  and  vigorous 
veto  message  which  he  sent  to  the  Legislature  on  that  occasion.     He  said  : 

' '  '  Nowhere  on  this  continent  is  it  so  essentially  a  condition  of  good  government 
as  in  the  city  of  New  York,  that  the  chief  executive  officer  should  be  clothed 
with  ample  powers,  have  full  control  over  subordinate  administrative  departments, 
and  so  be  subject  to  an  undivided  responsibility  to  the  people  and  to  public 
opinion  for  all  errors,  short  comings  and  wrong  doings  by  subordinate  officers. ' 

"He  also  said  : 

"  '  Give  to  the  city  a  chief  executive,  with  full  power  to  appoint  all  heads  of 
administrative  departments.  Let  him  have  power  to  remove  his  subordinates, 
being  required  to  publicly  assign  his  reason.' 

' '  He  further  declared  : 

' '  '  The  members  of  the  common  council  in  New  York,  will  exert  all  the 
influence  over  appointments  which  is  consistent  with  the  public  good,  without  hav- 
ing the  legal  power  of  appointment,  or  any  part  of  it,  vested  in  their  hands. ' 

"In  1876,  after  four  added  years  of  reflection  and  observation,  he  said,  in  a 
public  address,  when  suggesting  a  scheme  of  municipal  government : 

"  '  Have,  therefore,  no  provision  in  your  charter  requiring  the  consent  of  the 
common  council  to  the  mayor's  appointments  of  heads  of  departments  ;  that  only 
opens  the  way  for  dictation  by  the  council  or  for  bargains.  This  is  not  the  way  ta 
get  good  men  nor  to  fix  the  full  responsibility  for  mal-administration  upon  the 
people's  chosen  prime  minister.' 

"  These  are  the  utterances  of  one  who,  during  two  terms  had  been  mayor  of 
the  city  of  New  York  and  for  two  terms  recorder  of  that  city  ;  and  who  for  four 
years  had  been  Governor  of  the  State. 

"No  testimony,  it  seems  to  me,  could  be  more  satisfactory  and  convincing. 

"  It  is  objected  that  this  bill  does  not  go  far  enough,  and  that  there  should  be 
a  rearrangement  of  the  terms  of  these  officers  ;  also  that  some  of  them  should  be 
made  elective.  This  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  approve  further 
judicious  legislation  supplementary  to  this,  which  will  make  the  change  more 
valuable  and  surround  it  with  safeguards  in  the  interests  of  the  citizens.  But  such 
further  legislation  should  be  well  digested  and  conservative,  and,  above  all,  not 
proposed  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  a  mere  partisan  advantage. 

' '  I  have  not  referred  to  the  pernicious  practices  which  the  present  mode  of 
making  appointments  in  the  city  of  New  York  engenders,  nor  in  the  constantly 
recurrring  bad  results  for  which  it  is  responsible.  They  are  in  the  plain  sight  of 
every  citizen  of  the  State. 

"  I  believe  the  change  made  by  the  provisions  of  this  bill  gives  opportunity  for 
an  improvement  in  the  administration  of  municipal  affairs  ;  and  I  am  satisfied 
that  the  measure  violates  no  right  of  the  people  of  the  locality  affected,  which  they 
now  enjoy.  But  the  best  opportunities  will  be  lost  and  the  most  perfect  plan  of 
city  government  will  fail,  unless  the  people  recognize  their  responsibilities  and 
appreciate  and  realize  the  privilr^es  and  duties  of  citizenship.  With  the  most 
carefully  devised  charter,  and  WsBi  all  the  protection  which  legislative  enactments 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  55 

can  afford  them,  the  people  of  the  city  of  New  York  will  not  secure  a  wise  and 
economical  rule  until  those  having  the  most  at  stake  determine  to  actively  interest 
themselves  in  the  conduct  of  municipal  affairs. 

"GROVER  CLEVELAND." 

The  County  Clerk's  Bill. 

The  County  Clerk's  hill  (chap.  299  Laws  of  1884)  is  one  the  object  of  which 
can  he  stated  in  a  few  words.     It  provides  : 

1.  That  hereafter,  in  lieu  of  the  fees  received  by  the  county  clerk  estimated  as 
high  as  $100,000  per  year  by  some,  the  county  clerk  shall  receive  a  salary  of 
$15,000  per  year. 

2.  That  all  fees  heretofore  collected  under  authority  of  law  for  the  county 
clerk  shall  be  accounted  for  and  paid  monthly  into  the  treasury  of  the  City  and 
County  of  New  York. 

3.  It  fixes  the  amount  of  fees  that  shall  be  collected ;  and 

4.  Provides  safeguards  and  penalties  for  the  proper  transaction  of  business. 
This  bill  the  Governor  signed  promptly. 

The  Sheriff's  Bill. 

The  Sheriff's  bill,  the  terms  of  which  have  in  some  quarters  been  a  matter  of 
dispute  and  discussion,  is  presented  in  full. 

Chap.  297. 

An  act  to  regulate  and  provide  the  certain  expenses  of  conducting  the  office  of 
sheriff  of  the  City  and  County  of  New  York. 

Passed  May  14,  1884  ;  three-fifths  being  present. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New   York,   represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do 

enact  as  follows  : 

Section  1.  After  the  passage  of  this  act  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City 
of  New  York  shall  cease  to  have  or  exercise  any  powers  in  regard  to  regulating, 
establishing  or  providing  for  the  compensation  to  be  paid  to  the  Sheriff  of  the  City 
and  County  of  New  York  for  the  performance  of  any  duties  now  or  hereafter 
imposed  by  law  upon  said  Sheriff. 

§  2.  Within  thirty  days  from  the  first  day  of  November,  eighteen  hundred  and 
eighty -four,  and  thereafter  yearly  within  the  same  period,  the  sheriff  of  the  city 
and  county  of  New  York  shall  present  to  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportion- 
ment of  said  city  an  estimate  in  writing  of  the  amounts  which  he  deems  necessary 
for  defraying  during  the  ensuing  year  those  objects  of  expenditure  connected  with  his 
said  office,  which  are  by  law  made  a  charge  upon  said  city  and  county.  The  yearly 
estimate  so  presented  by  the  said  sheriff  shall  specify  the  aggregate  of  per  capita 
amounts  which  he  deems  necessary  to  compensate  him  for  filing  returns  of  crim- 
inal convictions  according  to  law  with  the  secretary  of  state  ;  for  conveying  pris- 
oners from  the  city  prison  to  the  penitentiary,  to  the  house  of  refuge,  and  to  the 
courts  of  oyer  and  terminer  and  general  sessions  and  back  to  prison  from  said 
courts ;  for  the  support  of  prisoners  confined  in  the  county  jail,  whether  criminal 
or  civil  prisoners  ;  for  summoning  jurors  according  to  law  ;  for  the  attendance  of 
himself  and  his  deputies  at  the  execution  of  criminals,  and  all  other  expenses  con- 
nected therewith,  and  prior  to  execution  ;  and  the  said  estimate  shall  specify  in 
detail  all  other  objects  of  expenditure  connected  with  said  office  chargeable  as 
aforesaid  to  said  city  and  county,  with  the  amounts  which  the  said  sheriff  deems 
necessary  for  defraying  the  same. 

§  3.  The  said  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  shall,  in  making  their  pro- 
visional and  final  estimates  of  the  amounts  requisite  to  meet  the  expenses  of  con- 
ducting the  public  business  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York,  consider  the 
yearly  estimate  presented  by  said  sheriff,  and  shall  provide  for  the  various  objects 
of  expenditure  in  said  yearly  estimate  specified,  such  sums  or  fix  such  rates  of 
payment  therefor  as  in  the  judgment  of  said  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment 
may  deem  necessary  and  sufficient.      No   expense   chargeable  to  said  city  and 


56  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

1 

county  shall  be  incurred  by  said  sheriff  in  excess  of  the  arnouDts  appropriated  or 
rates  fixed  therefor  by  said  board. 

§  4.  All  acts  or  parts  of  acts  authorizing  the  board  of  Aldermen  of  the  city  of 
New  York,  as  such  board,  or  as  the  board  of  supervisors  of  the  county  of  New 
York,  to  contract  with  the  sheriff  of  said  city  and  county  for  the  performance  of 
any  services  for  said  city  and  county,  or  to  compensate  said  sheriff  for  any  services 
performed  by  him,  so  far  as  such  acts  or  parts  of  acts  do  grant  such  authority, 
and  all  acts  or  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act  are  hereby 
repealed. 

§  5.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

This  bill  the  Governor  also  signed  at  once. 

The  County  Register's  Bill. 

The  Register's  bill  provided  : 

1.  That  in  lieu  of  the  fees  now  received  by  the  Register,  he  should  have  a 
salary  of  $12,000  per  year,  and 

2.  Regulated  the  fees  to  be  charged  and  provided  for  proper  turning  over  to 
the  treasury  of  the  city  and  county. 

The  Surrogate's  Bill. 
The  Surrogate's  bill  provided  : 

1.  That  the  office  and  all  its  appointments  should  be  removed  from  the  control 
of  the  Board  of  Aldermen. 

2.  Giving  the  absolute  control  to  the  Surrogate. 

3.  Fixing  the  fees  to  be  charged  in  office  of  Surrogate,  and 

4.  Providing  that  such  fees  as  shall  be  charged  be  turned  over  monthly  to  the 
treasury  of  the  county  ;  and 

5.  Cutting  down  largely  fees  heretofore  charged. 

These  bills,  when  the  Governor  came  to  examine,  were  in  such  shape  that  he 
could  not  sign  them,  their  defects  defeating  their  purpose.  Fortunately  they  had 
been  received  in  the  Executive  Chamber  while  the  Legislature  was  yet  in  session, 
when  they  could  yet  be  recalled,  and  when  their  defects  could  be  remedied. 

Consequently,  the  Governor  addressed  a  message  to  the  Assembly,  where  the 
bills  originated,  asking  their  recall  and  amendment,  as  follows  : 

Endeavoring  to  Correct  Errors. 

"  Executive  Chamber,  Albany,  May  12,  1884, 

"To  the  Assembly : 

"  I  have  examined  Assembly  bill  No.  466,  entitled  '  An  act  in  relation  to  the 
office  of  register  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York/  and  the  Assembly  bill  No. 
467,  entitled  '  An  act  in  relation  to  the  office  of  surrogate  of  the  county  of  New 
York,'  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  both  of  them  should  be  recalled  for  amend- 
ment. I  am  led  to  make  this  suggestion  for  the  reason  that  these  bills  belong  to 
a  class  of  remedial  measures  of  great  importance,  and  from  the  enactment  of 
which  valuable  reforms  are  anticipated.  It  is  manifest  that  their  good  effect  should 
not  be  jeopardized  or  diminished  by  imperfection  in  their  form  or  by  the  omission 
of  any  provisions  which  tend  to  make  them  complete  and  effective. 

"  In  the  bill  relating  to  the  office  of  Register,  subdivision  16  of  section  4  appears 
to  be  unintelligible.  The  language  is  as  follows  :  '  Every  certificate  other  than 
that  a  paper  for  the  copying  of  which  he  is  entitled  to  a  fee  is  a  copy,  twenty-five 
cents. ' 

"  I  suppose  the  intention  may  be  expressed  in  the  following  words  : 

"'Every  certificate  other  than  to  a  paper,  for  the  copying  of  which  he  is 
entitled  to  a  fee,  twenty-five  cents.' 

"  Section  five  of  the  act  provides  for  the  giving  of  a  bond  for  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  his  duties  by  '  The  register  appointed  or  elected  as  successor  to  the 
present  incumbent  of  that  office  in  the  city  and  county  of  New  York.' 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  57 

"  Of  course  this  should  be  made  to  apply  to  all  registers  hereafter  elected  or 
appointed. 

"  Section  ten,  in  relation  to  the  keeping  of  accounts,  is  in  the  same  form,  and 
appears  to  need  the  same  amendment. 

' '  In  line  nine  of  section  five  the  word  '  clerk '  by  mistake  used  instead  of 
'  register '  is  quite  an  important  provision. 

''  Sections  ten  and  eleven  both  require  a  statement  showing,  among  other  things, 
'  the  fees,  perquisites  and  emoluments  which  the  register  or  his  assistants  shall  be 
entitled  to  demand  from  any  person  for  services  rendered  in  his  or  their  official 
capacity. '  There  should,  I  think,  be  no  such  provision  in  the  law  ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  should  contain  a  positive  direction  to  the  register  that  he  should  give  no 
credit  to  any  person  for  fees,  or  that  he  should  receive  the  same  in  advance  and 
be  responsible  to  the  city  and  county  for  all  fees  earned  by  him. 

"The  plan  of  this  bill  is  to  pay  to  the  register  a  salary,  and  have  the  fees  of  the 
office  turned  into  the  treasury  of  the  city  and  county.  This  officer,  thus  assured 
of  his  salary,  will  have  no  personal  interest  in  collecting  the  fees  of  his  office  ;  and 
the  city  should  be  protected  against  an  accumulation  of  very  doubtful  assets  com- 
prising numerous  accounts  against  attorneys  for  register's  fees. 

'*  Bill  No.  467,  relating  to  the  office  of  surrogate,  provides  in  its  sixth  section, 
that  after  the  passage  of  this  act  '  the  surrogate,  the  assistant  to  said  surrogate,  or 
other  clerks,  employees  or  subordinates  in  or  attached  to  the  office  or  court  of  sur- 
gate,  shall  not  charge  or  receive  to  his  or  their  own  use  and  benefits  or  otherwise  than 
for  the  benefits  of  said  county,  any  fees,  perquisites  or  emoluments  for  any  services 
rendered  by  him  or  them  by  virtue  of  his  or  their  official  positions,  except  as  pro- 
vided in  subdivision  one  of  section  seven  of  this  act. 

"  Section  seven  provides  that  no  fees,  perquisites  or  emoluments  shall  be  charged 
or  received  by  the  surrogate,  or  any  of  his  assistants  or  subordinates,  except  as 
therein  specified. 

"  Then  follows  subdivision  one,  which  is  referred  to  in  section  six,  as  fixing  the 
fees  that  may  be  charged  and  received  to  their  own  use  by  the  surrogate,  and  his 
assistants  and  subordinates,  which  is  in  the  following  words  : 

"  1.  When  in  a  case  prescribed  by  law,  or  in  any  other  case,  upon  the  applica- 
tion of  a  party,  he  goes  to  a  place  other  than  Ms  office,  or  the  court-room  where  he 
is  required  to  hold  court,  in  order  to  take  testimony,  he  may  charge  and  receive  to 
Ms  own  use,  ten  cents  for  each  mile  for  going  and  the  same  for  returning. " 

"  This  is  the  exact  language  of  subdivision  one  of  section  2566  of  the  Code  of 
Civil  Procedure.  But  by  that  section  the  mileage  allowed  is  confined  to  the  surro- 
gate alone,  and  not  to  any  assistants  or  subordinates.  It  was  evidently  intended 
to  apply  to  counties  embracing  a  large  area,  and  to  cases  when  the  surrogate  might 
be  called  upon  to  travel  a  considerable  distance,  involving  an  expense  for  which  he 
should  be  reimbursed. 

' '  I  can  see  no  propriety  in  making  this  application  even  to  the  surrogate  of  the 
City  and  County  of  New  York  ;  and  as  it  may  be  claimed  that  it  applies  under 
this  bill  to  the  subordinates  as  well  as  to  the  surrogate,  it  would  seem  to  open  the 
door  to  abuses. 

"  I  think  all  the  provisions  of  the  bill  permitting  any  fees  to  be  received  by  the 
surrogate  or  his  subordinates,  to  his  or  their  own  use,  should  be  stricken  out,  and 
that  the  same  should  be  expressly  prohibited. 

"  There  should  also  be  inserted  in  this  bill,  in  my  judgment,  a  prohibition 
against  the  surrogate  giving  any  credit  for  his  fees  and  services,  and  holding  him 
responsible  to  the  city  and  county  for  all  fees  earned  in  his  office. 

"I  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  examine  the  other  bills  in  my  hands,  similar 
to  those  referred  to,  relating  to  the  public  offices  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with 
such  care  as  is  necessary,  to  determine  whether  they  contain  similar  imperfections. 

"I  recommend  that  bills  Nos.  466  and  467,  which  are  above  referred  to,  be 
recalled  for  amendment.  And  in  view  of  the  near  approach  of  the  final  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Legislature,  I  suggest  that  the  other  bills  of  a  like  character  be  also 
recalled  or  carefully  examined  by  some  party  familiar  with  the  subjects  they 
embrace,  so  that  fatal  defects  shall  not  be  discovered  when  it  is  too  late  for  amend- 
ment. 

"GROVER  CLEVELAND." 

These  two  bills  were  recalled  and  amendments  made,  but  not  in  a  manner 
which  was  satisfactory  to  anybody.     However,  while  regretting  that  the  amend- 


58  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

ments  had  not  been  more  carefully  drawn,  the  Governor  signed  the  bills,  and  in  a 
memorandum  filed  with  them  gave  his  reasons  for  doing  so . 

Defective  Bills. 

These  bills  were  returned  during  the  closing  hours  of  the  session,  and  about 
the  same  time  also  were  the  bills  known  as  the  "  Park  Commissioners'  bill  "  and 
"Tenure  of  Office  bill,"  sent  to  the  Governor.  At  that  time  not  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  bills  were  awaiting  the  action  of  the  Governor,  a  number  which 
was  increased  to  four  hundred  upon  the  adjournment ;  consequently  before  the 
Governor  could  reach  these  bills  the  Legislature  of  1884  had  adjourned,  and  all 
opportunity  to  remedy  errors  gone. 

The  "  Tenure  of  Office  bill "  and  ''Park  Commissioners'  bill"  are  presented 
below  that  their  defects  may  be  seen." 

Tenure  of  Office  Bill. 

AN  ACT  to  fix  and  regulate  the  terms  of  office  of  certain  public  officers  in  the 

City  of  New  York. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact 
as  follows : 

Section  1.  Every  officer,  commissioner  or  head  of  department  in  the  City  of 
New  Y^rk  who  shall  be  hereafter  appointed  during  the  term  for  which  the  present 
mayor  of  that  city  was  elected,  by  said  mayor,  with  or  without  confirmation  by 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  either  to  fill  a  vacancy  for  an  unexpired  term,  or  for  a  full 
term,  shall  hold  his  office  until  and  no  longer  than  noon  on  the  first  day  of  Febru- 
ary, eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-five,  and  the  appointment  and  qualification  of  his 
successor. 

§  2.  The  mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  to  be  elected  at  the  general  election 
in  the  year  1884,  shall,  within  thirty  days  after  the  commencement  of  the  term  for 
which  he  is  elected,  appoint  successors  to  each  office,  commission  and  head  of 
department  who  may  be  appointed  during  the  remainder  of  the  term  for  which  the 
present  mayor  of  that  city  was  elected  and  the  person  so  appointed  shall  hold  office 
for  the  same  terms  respectively  that  those  officers,  commissioners  and  heads  of 
departments  whom  they  succeed  would  have  held  office  if  this  act  had  not  been 
enacted,  provided  that  any  commissioner  or  head  of  department,  appointed  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act,  shall  not  hold  office  for  any  longer  term  or  period  than  the 
term  of  office  of  the  mayor  by  whom  such  commission  or  head  of  department  shall 
be  appointed  and  thirty  days  thereafter. 

§  3.  All  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act  are 
hereby  repealed. 

§  4.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

Park  Commission  Bill, 

AN  ACT  to  provide  for  a  more  efficient  government  of  the  department  of  parks 

in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do 
enact  as  follows: 

Section  1.  The  terms  of  office  of  the  present  commissioners  of  the  depart- 
ment of  public  parks  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  of  any  of  their  successors 
who  may  be  appointed  by  the  present  mayor  of  said  city,  shall  cease  and  terminate 
on  February  one,  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty -five,  and  in  their  place  the  mayor 
shall,  within  ten  days  thereafter,  appoint  three  commissioners,  who  shall  be  known 
as  the  commissioners  of  the  department  of  public  parks  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
and  who  shall  succeed  to  all  the  rights,  powers  and  duties  of  the  present  commis- 
sioners, one  of  whom  shall  serve  for  two  years,  one  of  whom  shall  serve  for  four 
years,  and  one  of  whom  shall  serve  six  years,  or  until  removed  by  the  mayor,  at  a 
salary  of  five  thousand  dollars  a  year  each  ;  and  biennially  thereafter  the  mayor 
shall  appoint  one  commissioner  of  the  department  of  public  parks,  who  shall 
hold  his  office  for  two,  four  or  six  years,  as  the  term  of  the  office  becoming  vacant 
shall  require,  or  until  removed. 


PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND.  5& 

So  reluctant  was  the  Governor  to  sign  the  surrogate's  and  register's  bill,  with 
their  imperfections,  that  he  felt  constrained  to  give  the  reasons  which  had  finally 
induced  him  to  give  his  signature  to  them.  And  in  the  same  memoranda  he  gave 
his  reasons  for  withholding  his  signature  from  the  "Tenure  of  Office  bill"  and 
the  "  Park  Commissioners'  bill,"  all  of  which  are  presented  below  : 

The  Governor's  Reasons. 

State  of  New  York,  ) 

Executive  Chamber,  v 

Albany,  June  14th,  1884.  ) 

Memorandum  filed  with  the  approval  of  Assembly  bill  No.  466,  entitled  "  An  act 
in  relation  to  the  office  of  the  register  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York." 

This  bill,  together  with  Assembly  bill  No.  467,  entitled  "  An  act  in  relation  to 
the  office  of  surrogate  of  the  county  of  New  York,"  which  is  also  this  day  ap- 
proved, came  into  my  hands  originally  during  the  session  'of  the  Legislature  and 
prior  to  the  twelfth  day  of  May  last. 

Upon  examining  these  two  bills  I  discovered  certain  defects  and  errors  of  so 
much  importance  that  on  the  day  last  mentioned  I  addressed  a  message  to  the 
Assembly  calling  attention  to  the  imperfections  in  the  bills,  and  suggesting  that 
they  should  be  recalled  for  amendment. 

This  course  was  adopted  by  the  Assembly  and  certain  amendments  were  made,, 
after  which  they  were  again  returned  to  me  for  my  approval. 

I  think  thqy  are  still  defective,  in  that  while  they  oblige  the  city  to  pay  certain 
salaries  to  the  officers  therein  named,  and  profess  to  make  all  fees  earned  by  them 
payable  to  the  city,  they  permit  these  officers  to  turn  over  accounts  against  parties 
for  whom  official  services  are  rendered  instead  of  the  fees  in  cash. 

But,  inasmuch  as  these  deficiencies  are  not  fatal,  I  waive  my  objections  based 
thereon,  and  construe  the  fact  that  they  were  not  remedied,  though  attention  was 
particularly  called  to  them,  as  proof  that  the  Legislature  differed  with  me  as  to  the 
expediency  of  making  a  change. 

Among  other  errors,  however,  which  were  considered  by  all  interested  of 
sufficient  importance  to  make  necessary  the  recall  and  amendment  of  these  bills, 
was  one  occurring  in  that  relating  to  the  office  of  register,  which  limited  the  per- 
formance of  certain  important  duties  only  to  the  immediate  successor  of  the  present 
incumbent. 

In  the  message  to  the  Assembly  above  referred  to,  after  suggesting  the  recall  of 
the  bills  for  amendment,  the  following  language  was  used: 

"I  am  led  to  make  this  suggestion  for  the  reason  that  these  bills  belong  to  a 
class  of  remedial  measures  of  great  importance,  and  from  the  enactment  of  which 
valuable  reforms  are  anticipated.  It  is  manifest  that  their  good  effect  should  not 
be  jeopardized  or  diminished  by  imperfection  in  their  form  or  by  the  omission  of 
any  provisions  which  tend  to  make  them  complete  and  effective." 

And  the  message  concluded  in  the  following  words: 

' '  I  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  examine  the  other  bills  in  my  hands  similar 
to  those  referred  to,  relating  to  the  public  offices  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with 
such  care  as  is  necessary  to  determine  whether  they  contain  similar  imperfections. 

"I  recommend  that  bills  Nos.  466  and  467,  which  are  above  referred  to,  be  re- 
called for  amendment.  And  in  view  of  the  near  approach  of  the  final  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Legislature,  I  suggest  that  the  other  bills  of  a  like  character  be  also 
recalled  or  carefully  examined  by  some  party  familiar  with  the  subjects  they 
embrace,  so  that  fatal  defects  shall  not  be  discovered  when  it  is  too  late  for 
amendment. " 

Notwithstanding  this  express  warning  there  are  two  bills  now  in  my  hands 
which  are  connected  in  purpose  and  general  design  with  those  last  referred  to, 
which  are  so  seriously  imperfect  that  I  have  determined  not  to  approve  them. 
One  of  these  is  a  Senate  bill  entitled  '  •  An  act  to  fjx  and  regulate  the  terms  of 
office  of  certain  public  officers  in  the  city  of  New  York,"  which  contains  the  same 
vice  in  an  exaggerated  form  that  caused  the  recall  and  amendment  of  the  bill 
relating  to  the  register.  It  absolutely  makes  no  provision  for  the  appointment  of 
any  officer  or  head  of  department  after  the  immediate  successors  to  those  now  in 
office. 


'60  PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

And  the  second  section  provides  that  "  the  major  of  the  city  of  New  York,  to 
he  elected  at  the  general  election  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-four, 
shall,  within  thirty  days  after  the  commencement  of  the  term  for  which  he  is 
elected,  appoint  successors  to  each  office,  commissioner  and  head  of  department, 
who  may  be  appointed  during  the  remainder  of  the  term  for  which  the  present 
mayor  of  the  city  was  elected  ;  and  the  persons  so  appointed  shall  hold  office  for 
the  same  terms  respectively  that  those  officers,  commissioners  and  heads  of  depart- 
ments whom  they  succeed,  would  have  held  office  if  this  act  had  not  been  enacted, 
provided  that  any  commissioner  or  head  of  department  appointed  under  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act,  shall  not  hold  office  for  any  longer  term  or  period  than  the 
term  of  office  of  the  mayor  by  whom  such  commissioners  or  head  of  departments 
shall  be  appointed,  and  thirty  days  thereafter." 

Section  third  repeals  all  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions 
of  this  act. 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  this  bill  does  not  purport  to  "fix  and  regulate" 
the  terms  of  all  appointive  offices,  but  only  such  as  shall  be  appointed  during  the 
remainder  of  the  term  of  the  present  mayor  and  their  immediate  successors.  And 
it  will  be  observed  that  the  next  mayor  can  only  appoint  successors  to  such  officers 
as  shall  be  appointed  by  the  present  mayor  during  the  remainder  of  his  term.  I 
think  the  evident  intention  of  the  bill  would  be  entirely  defeated  if  the  mayor  now 
in  office  should  allow  the  present  incumbents  to  hold  over  until  the  expiration  of 
their  terms  instead  of  appointing  others  in  their  places. 

When  the  bill  attempts  to  fix  the  terms  of  the  appointees  of  the  next  mayor  it 
would  seem  to  provide  in  the  same  sentence  for  two  limitatious  to  such  terms — 
that  is,  four  years  from  the  1st  day  of  May,  1885,  as  provided  by  the  present  law, 
and  one  year  and  eleven  months  from  February  1st,  1885.  • 

I  observe,  too,  that  the  last  limitation  only  applies  to  "commissioners  and 
heads  of  departments,"  the  word  "officers"  having  been  omitted,  though  it  is 
embraced  in  the  other  limitation. 

^  Of  all  the  defective  and  shabby  legislation  which  has  been  presented  to  me, 
this  is  the  worst  and  most  inexcusable,  unless  it  be  its  companion,  which  is  entitled 
' '  An  act  to  provide  for  a  more  efficient  government  of  the  department  of  parks  in 
the  city  of  New  York." 

This  bill  provides  that  the  terms  of  office  of  the  present  commissioners  of  the 
department  of  public  parks  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  any  of  their  successors 
who  may  be  appointed  by  the  present  mayor,  shall  cease  on  the  1st  day  of  Febru- 
ary, 1885,  and  that  in  their  place  the  mayor  shall  appoint,  within  ten  days  there- 
after, three  commissioners,  one  of  whom  shall  serve  for  two  years,  one  for  four 
years,  and  one  for  six  years  ;  and  that  ' '  biennially  thereafter  the  mayor  shall  ap- 
point one  commissioner  of  the  department  of  public  parks,  who  shall  hold  his 
office  for  two,  four  or  six  years,  as  the  term  of  the  office  becoming  vacant  shall 
require  or  until  removed." 

I  confess  I  am  utterly  unable,  after  considerable  study,  to  determine  when  the 
terms  of  any  appointees  after  the  first  would  terminate,  or  how  the  department 
could  be  long  continued  with  three  members,  under  the  provisions  of  this  bill . 

In  1887  the  shortest  term  of  these  officers  would  expire  and  a  commissioner 
should  be  appointed.  What  length  of  time  for  the  new  commsssioner  does  the 
office  becoming  vacant  "  require?"  I  think  the  language  of  the  bill  can  be  most 
reasonably  answered  by  making  another  appointment  for  two  years.  If  this  was 
done  the  new  appointee's  term  would  expire  in  1889.  But  at  this  time  the  four 
years'  term  of  an  original  appointee  would  also  expire,  making  two  offices  to  be 
then  filled,  while  the  mayor,  by  the  bill,  is  limited  to  the  appointment  of  one 
commissioner  in  that  year. 

If  it  was  intended  to  create  a  commission  of  three  members,  it  is  entirely  evi- 
dent that  the  term  of  all  appointees,  after  the  first,  should  have  been  for  six  years. 

Appreciating  the  litigation  and  the  sacrifice  of  rights  and  interests  which  result 
from  defective  laws,  I  have  earnestly  tried,  during  my  official  term,  to  enforce 
care  in  their  preparation.  I  am  importuned  every  day  to  allow  laws  to  go  upon 
the  statute  book  which  are  mischievously  imperfect,  but  which  are  deemed  good 
enough  to  promote  the  purposes  of  interested  parties.  It  is  not  pleasant,  constantly, 
to  refuse  such  applications,  but  I  conceive  it  my  duty  to  do  so. 

Though  the  purposes  of  these  bills  are  supposed  to  be  in  the  public  interest, 
and  though  their  failure  may  be  a  disappointment  to  many,  I  do  not  see  that  I 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  61 

should  allow  them  to  breed  dispute  and  litigation  touching  important  public 
offices,  and  to  be  made  troublesome  precedents  to  encourage  careless  and  vicious 
legislation. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

What  the  Author  of  the  Bill  says. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  the  Governor's  reasons  for  withholding  from  the 
"  Tenure  of  Office  bill"  his  signature,  Mr.  Francis  M.  Scott,  who  had  drawn  the 
bill  as  it  was  originally  presented— was  in  fact  its  author- -addressed  the  following 
communication  to  the  New  York  Times,  entirely  sustaining  the_" position  the  Gov- 
ernor had  taken  : 

To  ths  Editor  of  the  New  York  Times  : 

In  view  of  Governor  Cleveland's  sharp  criticism  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  bill, 
and  the  disposition  manifested  in  some  quarters  to  cavil  at  and  belittle  his  reasons 
and  question  his  motives,  it  is  but  fair  both  to  the  authors  of  the  bill  and  to  the 
Governor  that  the  facts  should  be  stated  as  they  really  are.  The  terms  of  office  of 
the  present  Corporation  Counsel  and  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  will  expire 
in  December  of  this  year,  and  their  successors,  to  be  appointed  by  the  mayor,  with 
the  consent  and  approval  of  the  Aldermen,  will,  by  the  provisions  of  the  Consoli- 
dation Act,  hold  office  until  four  years  from  the  first  day  of  next  May,  and  thence- 
forward the  successive  incumbents  of  those  offices  are  to  hold  for  four-year  terms, 
commencing  and  ending  on  May  first.  As  it  was  deemed  to  be  unfortunate  that 
the  first  mayor  to  be  elected  under  the  new  municipal  system  inaugurated  by  the 
aldermanic  bill  should  find  all  the  important  offices  already  filled  for  terms  extend- 
ing beyond  his  own,  a  bill  was  prepared  providing  that  all  commissioners,  heads 
of  departments,  and  other  officers  who  should  be  appointed  by  the  present  mayor, 
either  for  a  full  term  or  to  fill  a  vacancy,  with  or  without  confirmation  by  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  should  hold  office  until  the  first  day  of  February,  1885,  and 
until  their  successors  should  be  appointed,  and  that  such  successors  when  appointed 
should  hold  office  for  the  terms  for  which  those  whom  they  succeeded  would  have 
held  but  for  this  act. 

This  bill  as  originally  drawn,  was  entirely  clear  and  consistent  with  the  present 
charter  of  this  city,  in  effect  simply  changing  the  time  of  appointment  of  the 
officials  who  are  to  hold  until  May,  1889,  from  December,  1884,  to  February, 
1885,  while  for  this  appointment  of  their  successors  in  1889  the  consolidation  act 
makes  ample  provision,  and  if  it  had  reached  the  Governor  in  this  form  it 
would,  I  am  satisfied,  have  met  with  no  adverse  criticism  from  him.  After  the 
bill  had  passed  the  Senate  and  came  up  for  a  third  reading  in  the  Assembly,  a 
member  from  this  city  who  had  not  then  displayed  the  cloven  hoof  that  his  subse- 
quent course  in  regard  to  the  Board  of  Elections  bill  made  so  apparent,  offered  an 
amendment  providing  that  the  terms  of  such  officials  as  might  be  appointed  under 
the  bill  should  be  limited  to  the  term  of  office  of  the  mayor  making  the  appoint- 
ment. The  friends  of  the  measure,  perhaps  without  sufficient  consideration, 
accepted  the  amendment,  and  the  bill  was  passed  as  amended  and  hurriedly  sent 
to  the  Senate,  where  the  amendment  was  concurred  in. 

This  amendment  had  the  precise  effect  that  its  astute  proposer  probably  intended 
that  it  should  have,  and  changed  the  bill  from  a  complete  and  consistent  to  an 
incomplete  and  confused  one.  As  amended,  the  bill  provided  a  twenty-three 
months'  term  for  those  appointed  under  it,  and  made  no  provision  whatever  for  the 
appointment  of  their  successors  or  the  duration  of  their  terms,  leaving  such  pro- 
vision to  be  supplied  by  future  legislation  or  evolved  by  judicial  construction  out 
of  some  section  of  the  consolidation  act.  It  is  easy  for  those  who  see  grounds  for 
the  abuse  of  the  Governor  to  say  that  he  should  have  trusted  to  the  next  Legisla- 
ture to  cure  any  defects  that  he  might  discover  in  the  bill,  but  it  is  clear  that  no 
careful  and  conscientious  Executive  should  knowingly  assent  to  a  radically  defec- 
tive bill  simply  because  he  hopes  that  a  Legislature  not  yet  elected  will  see  the 
defects  and  consent  to  rectify  them. 

As  the  draughtsman  of  the  original  Tenure  of  Office  act,  and  one  of  the  most 
ardent  supporters,  I  am  constrained  to  agree  with  Governor  Cleveland  that  in  the 
shape  in  which  it  reached  him  it  was  a  very  shabby  piece  of  legislation,  quite  un- 
fit to  find  a  place  in  the  statute  book. 


'62  PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

As  to  the  Park  Commissioners'  bill,  it,  too,  was  hastily  and  inconsiderately- 
amended  in  the  course  of  its  passage  through  the  Legislature,  and  was  thereby 
quite  as  effectually  spoiled  as  was  the  Tenure  of  Office  act. 

FRANCIS  M.  SCOTT, 

No.  42  Pine  street. 
New  York,  Tuesday,  June  17,  1884. 

The  Times  in  commenting  upon  the  letter,  made  this  following  remark  : 
"A  correspondent  favors  us  with  an  explanation  of  an  interpolation  in  the  so- 
called  Tenure  of  Office  bill  which  had  escaped  our  attention,  and  which  entirely 
justifies  Governor  Cleveland's  refusal  to  sign  it.  The  amendment,  which  pro- 
vided that  the  terms  of  office  of  the  persons  to  be  appointed  under  the  bill  to  suc- 
ceed those  appointed  by  the  present  Mayor  should  be  limited  by  the  term  of  the 
Mayor  appointing  them,  confused  its  provisions  and  made  them  inconsistent  with 
themselves  and  with  existing  law.  The  purpose  of  the  amendment  was  evidently 
hostile,  but  it  escaped  the  attention  of  the  friends  of  the  measure." 

Subsequently,  this  same  controversy  having  sprung  up  as  to  the  Governor's  mo- 
tive and  action  in  the  matter,  Mr.  Scott,  whose  letter  is  quoted  above,  wrote  a  let- 
ter to  the  Evening  Post,  July  28,  which  will  be  deemed  by  all  conclusive  and 
unanswerable — indeed,  not  even  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  answer  it.  It  is 
presented  below  : 

The  Author  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  Bill  or\  the  Veto. 
lo  the  Editor  of  the  Evening  Post  : 

Sir — In  his  letter  published  in  the  Evening  Post  of  yesterday,  Mr.  George  Bliss 
argues  that  the  Governor's  objections  to  the  Tenure  of  Office  bill  were  untenable, 
and  that  even  if  they  were  sound,  they  applied  with  as  much  force  to  the  bill  in  its 
original  as  in  its  amended  form. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  defend  the  wording  of  the  original  bill,  and  I 
shall  confine  myself  to  a  consideration  of  it  in  the  shape  in  which  it  reached  the 
Executive  Chamber. 

The  specific  objections  which  the  Governor  found  to  the  bill  were  : 

First — That  it  made  no  provision  for  the  appointment  of  any  officer  or  head  of 
department  after  the  immediate  successors  to  those  now  in  office. 

Second — That  the  evident  intention  of  the  bill  would  be  entirely  defeated  if  the 
Mayor  now  in  office  should  allow  the  present  incumbents  to  hold  over. 

Third — That  the  bill  provided  in  the  same  sentence  two  limitations  to  the 
terms  of  the  appointees  of  the  next  Mayor. 

Colonel  Bliss  is  quite  right  in  saying  that  I  had  section  106  of  the  Consolidation 
Act  in  mind  when  I  drafted  the  Tenure  of  Office  act,  and  that  an  acquaintance 
with  the  provisions  of  that  section  is  necessary  to  a  thorough,  comprehension  of  the 
Governor's  first  and  principal  objection  to  the  bill.  That  section  provides  that 
"  every  head  of  department  and  person  in  this  section  named,  except  as  in  this  act 
otherwise  provided,  shall  hold  his  office  for  the  term  of  six  years,  and  in  each  case  until 
a  person  is  duly  appointed  and  has  qualified  in  his  place  ;  but  any  person  appointed 
after  the  commencement  of  the  term  as  herein  prescribed,  shall  hold  only  until  the 
expiration  of  such  term,  and  until  a  successor  is  duly  appointed  and  qualified.  The 
terms  of  office  of  all  such  heads  of  departments  and  persons,  whensoever  actually 
appointed,  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  May  in  the  year  in  which  the  terms  of 
office  of  their  predecessors  expire ;  but  the  Comptroller,  Corporation  Counsel,  and 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works  to  be  appointed  on  the  expiration  of  the  terms  of 
office  of  the  present  incumbents  in  December,  1884,  shall  hold  their  offices  until 
four  years  from  the  first  day  of  May  succeeding  such  month." 

As  I  pointed  out  in  my  letter  published  in  the  Times  on  June  18th,  the  practical 
effect  of  the  original  bill  was  simply  to  postpone  the  appointment  of  the  next 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works  and  Corporation  Counsel  from  December  to 
February,  leaving  their  terms  of  office  and  the  appointment  of  their  successors  to 
be  regulated  by  the  above  quoted  section  of  the  Consolidation  Act. 

The  Dayton  amendment  went  further  and  undertook  to  regulate  the  terms  of 
office  of  the  appointees  of  the  next  Mayor,  and  there  stopped.  When  would  their 
successors  take  office?  Apparently  in  May,  1887,  for  the  Consolidation  Act  says 
that  the  terms  of  office  of  heads  of  departments  and  persons  whensoever  actually 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  63 

appointed,  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  May,  in  the  year  in  which  the  terms 
of  office  of  the  predecessors  expire.  But  the  Dayton  amendment  provides  that  no 
commissioner  or  head  of  department  appointed  under  that  act  should  hold  office 
for  any  longer  term  or  period  than  the  term  of  office  of  the  Mayor  who  appointed 
him  and  thirty  days  thereafter,  and  the  usual  saving  clause  extending  the  incum- 
bency of  the  offices  until  the  appointment  and  qualification  of  successors  is  con- 
spicuous by  its  absence.  The  term  of  office  of  the  next  Mayor  of  this  city  will 
expire  on  January  1,  1887,  and  if  the  Tenure  of  Office  act  had  become  a  law  his 
appointees  under  it  could  have  held  office  no  longer  than  February  1,  1887,  while 
by  the  terms  of  the  Consolidation  Act  their  successors.  "  whensoever  actually 
appointed/'  could  not  have  become  invested  with  office  until  the  first  day  of  the 
following  May,  leaving  the  city  wholly  unprovided  with  a  Corporation  Counsel  or 
Commissioner  of  Public  Works  for  three  months.  And  when  appointed  and 
invested  with  office,  for  how  long  would  the  successors  of  the  appointees  of  the 
next  Mayor  have  held  under  the  Dayton  amendment,  taken  in  connection  with 
section  106  of  the  Consolidation  Act?  Not  for  four  years  apparently,  for  that  term 
is  limited  to  the  terms  of  the  officials  who  are  to  be  appointed  in  December,  1884. 
They  might  hold  for  six  years,  or  they  might  be  deemed  to  have  been  appointed 
"after  the  commencement  of  a  term  as  prescribed"  in  the  Consolidation  Act,  the 
term  prescribed  in  that  act  running  from  December,  1884,  to  May,  1889,  in  which 
case  they  would  hold  "  until  the  expiration  of  such  term."  Much  less  ambiguity 
has  often  led  in  the  past  to  expensive  and  protracted  litigation,  in  which  the  city 
has  been  called  upon  to  foot  the  bills  on  both  sides. 

The  Governor's  second  objection  was  that  the  present  Mayor  by  neglecting  to 
make  appointments  could  defeat  the  "  evident  intention"  of  the  bill. 

By  the  ' '  evident  intention  "  of  the  bill  is  clearly  meant  the  intention  to  make 
the  terms  of  office  of  the  appointees  of  the  next  Mayor  coterminus  with  his  own. 

The  Dayton  proviso  affected  the  terms  of  office  only  of  those  ' '  appointed  under 
this  act,"  and  the  act  provided  only  for  the  appointment  of  successors  to  the 
appointees  of  the  present  Mayor. 

If  the  present  Mayor  had  made  no  appointments,  no  successors  to  his  appointees 
could  have  been  appointed,  and  the  whole  act,  including  the  Dayton  amendment, 
would  never  have  gone  into  practical  effect.  In  such  an  event  the  next  Mayor  on 
coming  into  office  would  have  found  a  Corporation  Council  and  a  Commissioner 
of  Public  Works  holding  over,  and  would  have  appointed  their  successors,  not  by 
virtue  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  act,  but  by  virtue  of  section  106  of  the  Consolida- 
tion Act,  and  these  appointees  would  have  held,  not  until  February  1,  1887,  but 
until  May  1,  1889,  thus  palpably  defeating  the  "  evident  intention  "  of  the  Tenure 
of  Office  bill  as  amended  by  the  astute  Mr.  Dayton. 

The  validity  of  the  Governor's  third  objection  to  the  bill  is  apparent  upon  its 
face.  Its  seeond  section  provides  in  a  single  sentence  that  the  appointees  of  the 
next  Mayor  shall  hold  office  for  two  different  terms,  one  extending  to  May  1,  1889, 
and  the  other  expiring  on  February  1,  1887.  I  think  that  every  candid  reader  must 
be  prepared  to  admit  that  the  bill  as  it  reached  the  Governor,  was  in  truth 
"  defective  and  shabby  legislation,"  which,  until  amended,  was  not  even  intelligible, 
and  I  confess  my  surprise  that  one  who  has  had  so  much  experience  in  Albany  as 
has  Colonel  Bliss  should  deem  it  wise  or  even  excusable  in  a  careful  Governor  to 
sign  a  defective  bill  in  the  hope  and  trust  that  it  may  be  amended  in  some  way 
before  its  defects  produce  serious  results. 

As  Colonel  Bliss  has  dragged  Commissioner  Thompson's  name  into  his  letter, 
I  may  be  permitted  to  make  one  remark  as  to  the  political  effect  of  this  much 
discussed  veto.  The  effort  is  being  made  to  convince  the  public  that  the  veto  of 
the  Tenure  of  Office  bill  was  intended  and  calculated  in  some  way  to  strengthen 
Governor  Cleveland's  political  friends.  Its  effect  is  exactly  the  reverse.  The 
Governor  has  not  to-day,  and  had  not  when  the  bill  was  vetoed,  any  more  virulent, 
persistent,  and  aggressive  foes  than  the  leaders  of  Tammany  Hall,  and  yet  the 
Mayor  who  is  to  appoint  and  the  Aldermen  who  are  to  confirm  the  successors  to 
our  present  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  and  Corporation  Counsel  are  absolutely 
controlled  by  this  same  Tammany  Hall.  Had  the  Governor  been  actuated  by  any 
but  pure  and  honest  motives,  he  wrould  either  have  stricken  his  enemies  by  signing 
the  bill  or  would  have  utilized  his  veto  by  compelling  their  support  at  the  State 
and  national  conventions.  That  he  did  neither  is  proof  sufficient  that  the  reasons 
he  gave  for  the  veto  were  the  real  ones  that  influenced  his  action. 


64  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

So  far  as  Mr.  Dayton's  course  in  regard  to  the  bill  is  concerned,  I  have  never 
believed  for  an  instant  that  he  foresaw  the  Governor's  veto.  What  he  unquestion- 
ably desired  was  to  kill  the  bill.  The  session  was  drawing  to  a  close  ;  many 
private  bills  were  awaiting  their  third  reading  ;  this  bill  had  already  passed  the 
Senate  by  but  a  bare  majority,  and  the  friends  of  the  original  measure  could  count 
upon  just  enough  votes  to  pass  it  in  the  Assembly  on  a  fair  fight ;  the  situation 
was  desperate,  and  the  only  chance  to  defeat  the  bill  was  to  send  it  back  to  the 
Senate  with  an  amendment,  in  hope  that  it  would  either  be  "hung  up"  in  a 
conference  committee  or  defeated  when  put  upon  its  final  passage  as  amended. 
Some  one  suggested  the  very  plausible  amendment  that  was  offered  by  Mr.  Dayton, 
and  it  gained  favor  so  rapidly  that  Mr.  Roosevelt,  to  save  the  bill,  accepted  the 
amendment.  The  bill  as  amended  was  sent  to  the  Senate  before  any  one  had  time 
to  consider  its  language  or  effect,  and  the  amendment  was  concurred,  in  before  the 
opponents  of  the  bill  had  a  chance  to  pass  the  word  to  have  the  measure  delayed. 
The  scheme  to  defeat  the  bill  failed,  but  Mr.  Dayton  had  ' '  builded  better  than  he 
knew,"  and  the  Tenure  of  Office  act  had  been  hopelessly  and  fatally  muddled  and 
ruined. 

Francis  M.  Scott. 

New  York,  July  28. 


The   Soldiers. 

The  record  of  Governor  Cleveland  shows  that  his  interest  in  the  soldiers  who 
went  to  battle  in  defence  of  the  Union  is  not  alone  confined  to  words.  He 
has  never  failed  in  any  respect  to  give  such  assistance  to  the  veteran  soldiers  as  lay 
in  his  power,  either  as  a  public  official  or  a  private  citizen.  It  is  recited  in  another 
part  of  this  work  (under  the  head,  "  The  Use  of  Public  Moneys  ")  how,  when  una- 
ble to  give  his  sanction  to  the  use  of  public  moneys  for  the  erection  of  a  soldier's 
monument,  as  the  chief  executive  of  Buffalo,  he  led  the  movement  for  the  pro- 
curement of  the  funds  necessary  for  the  purpose,  by  heading  the  subscription  list 
as  a  private  citizen.  And  so  he  is  found  also  jealously  guarding  the  good  fame, 
and  what  symbolizes  it,  of  the  veteran  soldier,  not  so  much  by  word,  as  by  deed. 
When  it  had  come  to  the  question  of  caring  for  the  maimed,  the  crippled,  and  the 
disabled,  he  has  never  permitted  any  other  consideration  than  the  entire  fitness  of 
the  person  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  trusteeship  to  influence  him.  This  is  noticeable 
in  the  appointment  of  officers  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Bath. 

Burial  of  Dead  Soldiers. 

It  is  also  noted  in  the  promptness  with  which  he  signed  the  bill  passed  in  1883 
(chap.  247,  Laws  of  1883),  entitled  "  An  act  to  amend  chapter  203  of  the  Laws  of 
1881,  entitled  'An  act  to  authorize  the  burial  of  the  bodies  of  any  honorably  dis- 
charged soldier,  sailor  or  marine,  who  shall  hereafter  die  without  leaving  means 
sufficient  to  defray  funeral  expenses.'  "    This  bill  provides  as  follows  : 

Section  1.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors  in  each  of  the 
counties  of  this  State  to  designate  some  proper  authority,  other  than  that  desig- 
nated by  law  for  the  care  of  paupers  and  the  custody  of  criminals,  who  shall  cause 
to  be  interred  the  body  of  any  honorably  discharged  soldier,  sailor  or  marine,  who 
served  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States  during  the  late  rebellion,  who 
shall  hereafter  die  without  leaving  means  sufficient  to  defray  funeral  expenses  ; 
but  the  expenses  of  such  funeral  shall  not  in  any  case  exceed  the  sum  of  thirty- 
five  dollars.  In  case  the  deceased  has  relatives  or  friends  who  desire  to  conduct 
the  burial,  and  who  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  pay  the  charges  therefor,  then  the 
said  sum  shall  be  paid  to  them  or  their  representatives,  by  the  county  treasurer, 
upon  due  proof  of  the  death  and  burial  of  any  person  provided  for  by  this  section. 

§  2.  Any  interment  provided  for  by  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  not  be  made  in 
a  cemetery,  or  in  any  cemetery  or.  plot  used  exclusively  for  the  burial  of  the  pauper 
dead.    The  grave  of  any  such  deceased  soldier,  sailor  or  marine,  shall  be  marked  by 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  65 

a  headstone  containing  the  name  of  the  deceased,  and,  if  possible,  the  organization 
to  which  he  belonged  or  in  which  he  served  ;  such  headstone  shall  cost  not  more 
than  fifteen  dollars,  and  shall  be  of  such  design  and  material  as  shall  be  approved 
by  the  board  of  supervisors,  and  the  expense  of  such  burial  and  headstone  as  above 
provided  for  shall  be  a  charge  upon  and  shall  be  paid  by  the  county  in  which  the 
said  soldier,  sailor  or  marine  shall  have  died  ;  and  the  board  of  supervisors  of 
such  county  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  audit  the  account  and  pay  the 
expense  of  such  burial  in  the  same  manner  in  which  the  accounts  of  such  officers 
as  shall  be  charged  with  the  performance  of  such  duty  as  above  provided  shall  be 
audited  and  paid. 

§  3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

This  act  which,  as  was  stated  above,  was  promptly  signed  by  the  Governor, 
was,  in  1884,  amended  (chap.  319,  Laws  of '1884)  so  as  to  provide  that  the  graves 
of  any  honorably  discharged  soldier,  sailor  or  marine,  who  served  in  the  war  of 
the  rebellion,  and  who  had  been  buried  previous  to  the  enactment  of  1883,  should 
also  be  marked  by  a  headstone  by  the  counties  in  which  the  soldier,  sailor  or 
marine  had  died.      This  bill  also  the  Governor  promptly  signed. 

Soldiers  Preferred  ir\  Public  Employment. 

The  most  important  bill,  however,  signed  by  the  Governor  relating  to  soldiers 
was  the  one  which  is  presented  below,  passed  in  1884  : 

CHAP.  312. 

An  Act  respecting  the  employment  of  honorably  discharged  Union  soldiers  and 
sailors  in  the  public  service  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Passed  May  19,  1884  ;  three-fifths  being  present. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact 
as  follows : 

Section  1.  In  every  public  department  and  upon  all  public  works  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  honorably  discharged  Union  soldiers  and  sailors  shall  be  preferred 
for  appointment  and  employment.  Age,  loss  of  limb  or  other  physical  impair- 
ment, which  does  not,  in  fact,  incapacitate,  shall  not  be  deemed  to  disqualify  them, 
provided  they  possess  the  other  requisite  qualifications. 

§  2.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

Preserving  tl\e  Records  of  Soldiers. 

In  the  matter  of  preserving  correct  records  that  the  proper  fame  of  the  volun- 
teer soldier  should  be  transmitted  to  his  descendants,  his  signature  to  the  following 
bill  is  shown  : 

CHAP.  259. 

An  Act  to  provide  for  the  completion  of  the  records  of  New  York  volunteers  of 
the  war  of  the  rebellion  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  adjutant-general  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  for  the  safe  keeping  thereof. 

Passed  May  8,  1884  ;  three-fifths  being  present. 
The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact 
as  follows : 

Section  1.  The  adjutant-general  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  as  soon  as 
permission  to  do  so  shall  have  been  obtained  from  the  proper  department  of  the 
general  government,  to  cause  copies  to  be  made  of  all  military  records  relating  to 
New  York  volunteers  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  adju- 
tant-general of  the  United  States  army,  and  not  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  adjutant- 
general  of  this  State  ;  and  to  establish  as  a  part  of  his  office  a  bureau  of  records  of 
the  war  of  the  rebellion,  in  which  all  records  in  his  office  relating  to  said  war,  and 
the  records  and  relics  of  the  bureau  of  military  statistics  shall  be  united  and  kept. 

§  2.  The  trustees  of  the  capitol  are  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  assign 
suitable  quarters  to  said  bureau  whenever  the  adjutant-general  shall  require  and 
make  demand  therefor,  and  to  properly  fit  up  and  prepare  the  same  for  the  safe 


66  PUBLIC  RECORD  OF  GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

keeping  of  said  records,  and  the  proper  display  of  the  said  relics  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion. 

§  3.  The  treasurer  shall  pay,  on  the  warrant  of  the  comptroller,  such  sums  as 
may  from  time  to  time  be  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
not  to  exceed,  however,  the  total  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  on  the  audit  of  the 
adjutant-general  and  approval  of  the  governor,  which  sum  is  hereby  appropriated 
out  of  any  moneys  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

§  4.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

Speecl\  Before  the  Grand  Army. 

And  so  in  the  following  speech  is  found  the  pride  he  takes  in  the  achievements 
of  the  soldiers  of  the  State,  and  the  regret  over  the  lives  of  her  sons  sacrificed  in 
the  cause : 

I\espor\se  of  Goverr\or  Cleveland  to- the  toast  "The  State  of  New- 
York,"  at  the  Grar\d  Army  of  the  Republic  Banquet,  in,  hor\or  of 
the  unveiling  of  the  Soldier's  Monument  at  Buffalo,  July  4,  1884. 

I  am  almost  inclined  to  complain  because  the  sentiment  to  which  lam  requested 
to  respond  is  not  one  which  permits  me  to  speak  at  length  of  the  city  which,  for 
more  than  twenty-nine  years  has  been  my  home.  You  bid  me  speak  of  the  State, 
while  everything  that  surrounds  me  and  all  that  has  been  done  to-day,  reminds  me 
of  other  things.  I  cannot  fail  to  remember  most  vividly,  to-night,  that  exactly 
two  years  ago  I  felt  that  much  of  the  responsibility  of  a  certain  celebration  rested 
on  my  shoulders.  I  suppose  there  were  others  who  did  more  than  I  to  make  the 
occasion  a  success,  but  I  know  that  I  considered  myself  an  important  factor,  and 
that  when,  after  weeks  of  planning  and  preparation,  the  day  came  and  finally 
passed,  I  felt  as  much  relieved  as  if  the  greatest  effort  of  my  life  had  been  a  com- 
plete success. 

On  that  day  we  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  monument  which  has  to-day  been 
unveiled  in  token  of  its  completion.  We  celebrated,  too,  the  semi-centennial  of 
our  city's  life.  I  was  proud  then  to  be  its  chief  executive,  and  everything  con- 
nected with  its  interests  and  prosperity  was  dear  to  me.  To-night  I  am  still  proud 
to  be  a  citizen  of  Buffalo,  and  my  fellow  townsmen  cannot,  if  they  will,  prevent 
the  affection  I  feel  for  my  city  and  its  people. 

But  my  theme  is  a  broader  one,  and  one  that  stirs  the  heart  of  every  citizen  of 
the  State. 

The  State  of  New  York,  in  all  that  is  great,  is  easily  the  leader  of  all  the  States. 
Its  history  is  filled  with  glorious  deeds  and  its  life  is  bound  up  with  all  that 
makes  the  nation  great.  From  the  first  of  the  nation's  existence  our  State  has 
been  the  constant  and  generous  contributor  to  its  life  and  growth  and  vigor. 

But  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other  thought  to-night,  there  is  one  passage  in 
the  history  of  the  State  that  crowds  upon  my  mind. 

There  came  a  time  when  discord  reached  the  family  circle  of  States,  threaten- 
ing the  nation's  life.  Can  we  forget  how  wildly  New  York  sprang  forward  to 
protect  and  preserve  what  she  had  done  so  much  to  create  and  build  up  !  Four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  left  her  borders  to  stay  the  tide  of  destruction. 

During  the  bloody  affray  which  followed,  nearly  fourteen  thousand  and  five 
hundred  of  her  sons  were  killed  in  battle  or  died  of  wounds.  Their  bones  lie  in 
every  State  where  the  war  for  the  Union  was  waged.  Add  to  these  nearly  seven- 
teen thousand  and  five  hundred  of  her  soldiers,  who,  during  that  sad  time,  died 
of  disease,  and  then  contemplate  the  pledges  of  New  York's  devotion  to  a  united 
country,  and  the  proofs  of  her  faith  in  the  supreme  destiny  of  the  sisterhood  of 
States. 

And  there  returned  to  her  thousands  of  her  sons  who  fought  and  came  home 
laden  with  the  honors  of  patriotism,  many  of  whom  still  survive,  and,  like  the  min- 
strels of  old,  tell  us  of  heroic  deeds  and  battles  won,  which  saved  the  nation's  life. 

When  our  monument,  which  should  commemorate  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
their  comrades,  was  begun,  the  veterans  of  New  York  were  here.  To-day  they 
come  again  and  view  complete  its  fair  proportions,  which  in  years  to  come  shall 
be  a  token  that  the  patriotic  dead  are  not  forgotten. 

The  State  of  New  York  is  rich  in  her  soldier  dead,  and  she  is  rich  in  her  vet- 
erans of  the  war.     Those  who  still  survive,  and  the  members  of  the  Grand  Army 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER  CLEVELAND.  67 

of  the  Republic,  hold  in  trust  for  the  State  blessed  memoi  ies  which  connect  her 
with  her  dead  ;  and  these  memories  we  know  will  be  kept  alive  and  green. 

Long  may  the  State  have  her  veterans  of  the  war  ;  and  long  may  she  hold  them  in 
grateful  and  chastened  remembrance.  And  as  often  as  her  greatness  and  her 
grandeur  are  told,  let  these  be  called  the  chief  jewels  in  her  crown. 

Grand  Arrr\y  Badges. 

There  were  two  other  bills  relating  to  soldiers  passed  by  the  Legislature  from 
which  the  Governor  was  compelled  to  withhold  his  signature.  One  was  the  bill 
entitled  "  An  act  to  prevent  persons  from  unlawfully  using  or  wearing  the  badge 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  of  this  State."    Its  provisions  are  as  follows  : 

Section  1.  Any  person  who  shall  wear  the  badge  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  or,  who  shall  use  or  wear  the  same  to  obtain  aid  or  assistance  thereby 
within  this  State,  unless  he  shall  be  entitled  to  use  or  wear  the  same  under  the 
rules,  regulations  or  by-laws  of  a  Grand  Army  post,  duly  and  regularly  organized, 
shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  conviction  thereof  by  a  court  of 
competent  jurisdiction  shall  be  punished  by  imprisonment  for  a  term  not  to  exceed 
thirty  days  or.  a  fine  not  to  exceed  twenty  dollars,  or  by  both  such  fine  and 
imprisonment. 

§  2.  The  fines  collected  under  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  paid,  if  the 
complaint  upon  which  a  conviction  is  procured  is  made  by  the  comrade  of  any 
post  to  the  post  to  which  such  complainant  belongs.  If  such  complaint  shall  be 
made  by  any  other  person  than  a  comrade,  then  to  the  post  or  to  the  widow  or 
orphan  child  or  children  of  any  deceased  comrade  who  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  a  member  in  good  standing  of  such  post  as  may  be  designated  by  the  com- 
plainant. 

§  3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  May,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  eighty-four. 

The  above  bill  is  a  striking  instance  of  that  looseness  of  legislation  and  careless- 
ness in  the  drafting  of  bills  for  enactment  against  which  the  Governor  has  protested 
and  of  which  he  has  so  frequently  complained.  It  reached  him  when  it  was  too 
late  to  correct  its  obvious  errors,  and,  therefore,  he  was  compelled  to  let  the  bill  die 
without  his  signature.  This  he  did  most  reluctantly,  for  the  provision  which  makes 
it  a  misdemeanor  to  wear  a  Grand  Army  badge,  "  to  obtain  aid  or  assistance  thereby 
within  this  State,  unless  he  shall  be  entitled  to  use  or  wear  the  same  under  the  rules, 
regulations  or  by-laws  of  a  Grand  Army  post,  duly  and  regularly  organized,"  was 
praiseworthy  in  that  it  fixed  a  penalty  to  a  species  of  false  pretenses,  of  all  others 
the  most  to  be  condemned,  since  the  appeal  is  made  to  the  higher  patriotic  impulses, 
while  an  honorable  badge  is  degraded  by  the  use  to  which  it  is  put.  For  this  reason 
the  Governor,  as  he  makes  clear,  would  have  been  glad  to  sign  the  bill,  but  unfor- 
tunately, as  the  bill  is  drawn,  the  question  of  intent  is  left  out  of  consideration 
entirely.  The  mere  fact  of  wearing  the  badge  is  made  criminal,  or  to  use  the 
words  of  the  Governor  : 

' '  The  wearing  need  not  be  characterized  by  any  intent,  but  is  criminal  if  not  in 
accordance  with  the  rules  and  regulations  of  an  army  post  with  which  the  wearer 
may  be  entirely  unacquainted." 

Again,  the  provisions  for  the  disposition  of  the  penalties  to  be  collected  on 
conviction  of  an  offense  against  the  proposed  statute,  as  provided  in  section  2,  are 
altogether  too  indefinite  to  safely  have  place  among  the  penal  provisions  of  the 
State,  and  opened  up  an  opportunity  for  an  improper  use  of  them,  while  they 
certainly  are  against  the  established  policy  of  the  State  in  like  matters. 

There  is  still  another  view,  and  that  is  that  a  child  of  a  soldier,  having  a  pride 
in  the  record  of  the  services  of  a  deceased  father  in  defense  of  the  Union,  and  of 
which  this  badge  is  the  token  and  the  testimony,  would,  under  the  above  pro- 
vision, be  prevented  from  manifesting  that  honorable  pride  by  displaying  it  upon 
his  person.     The  object  sought  to  be  gained  by  the  measure  is  praiseworthy  ;  the 


68  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

means  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  gain  the  end  defeated  the  object  and  made  it 
of  doubtful  utility. 

Soldiers'  Certificates. 

The  other  bill  was  that  one  entitled  ' '  An  act  to  require  the  Secretary  of  State 
to  procure  a  suitable  plate,  to  print  certificates,  to  be  presented  to  honorably  dis- 
charged soldiers,  sailors  and  marines  who  served  in  the  Union  army  and  navy 
from  the  State  of  New  York." 

The  terms  of  the  bill  are  as  follows  : 

Section  1.  The  Secretary  of  State  is  hereby  authorized  and  empowered  to 
procure  a  suitable  plate  on  which  to  print  a  certificate,  to  be  presented,  in  the 
name  of  the  State  of  New  York,  to  all  honorably  discharged  soldiers,  sailors  and 
marines  who  enlisted  and  served  in  the  Union  army  and  navy  from  the  State  of 
New  York. 

§  2.  The  Secretary  of  State  is  hereby  authorized  to  deliver  to  all  honorably 
discharged  soldiers,  sailors,  marines,  under  the  great  seal  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  a  copy  of  said  certificate,  having  the  signatures  of  the  Governor,  Adjutant- 
General  and  Secretary  of  State. 

§  3.  The  Comptroller  is  authorized  to  draw  his  warrant  on  the  State  Treasurer, 
to  an  amount  not  exceeding  $2,000  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  provisions 
of  this  act. 

§  4.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

There  could  have  been  no  possible  objection  to  this  bill  if  its  provisions  had  not 
rendered  its  practical  operation  impossible. 

1.  The  sum  of  $2,000  was  ridiculously  inadequate,  since  the  cost  of  the  plate 
alone  would  have  exceeded  the  amount  appropriated,  and  there  is  a  constitutional 
provision  which  prohibits  an  officer  from,  at  any  time,  incurring  a  debt. 

2.  The  officer  to  have  taken  charge  of  this  matter  was  not  the  Secretary  of  State, 
but  the  Adjutant-General,  who  alone  is  the  custodian  of  the  rolls  of  the  volunteer 
soldiers. 

For  these  reasons  the  Governor  withheld  his  signature. 

Grover  Cleveland  as  a  Public  Officer. 

In  an  examination  of  the  record  of  Grover  Cleveland  as  a  public  officer,  no  fact 
is  more  apparent  than  that  the  Governor  has  an  old-fashioned  regard  for  the  duties 
of  citizenship,  and  of  the  obligation  of  public  officers  to  the  people  who  intrusted 
them  with  power  ;  a  regard  so  rigid  and  strict  as  to  recall  the  earlier  days  of  the 
Republic. 

That  ' '  public  officials  are  the  trustees  of  the  people  and  exercise  their  powers 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people,"  is  something  more  than  a  trite  utterance  with  Gov- 
ernor Cleveland ;  it  is  a  sentiment  deeply  implanted,  and  exerts  upon  him  control- 
ling influence  in  the  discharge  of  those  duties  with  which  he  is  intrusted,  and  is  the 
standard  by  which  he  judges  those  who  are  in  authority  under  him. 

In  the  speech  accepting  the  nomination  for  Mayor,  at  Buffalo,  in  1881 — in 
obedience  to  a  call  to  which  he  responded  much  to  his  own  disadvantage  and,  if 
he  had  considered  only  his  personal  preferences,  much  to  his  disinclination — he 
made  this  clear  in  the  following  words  : 

Officials  the  Trustees  of  the  People. 

*  *  *  «  ^nd  when  we  consider  that  'public  officials  are  the  trustees  of  the 
•people,  and  hold  their  places  and  exercise  their  powers  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  tliere 
should  be  no  higher  inducement  to  a  faithful  and  honest  discharge  of  public  duty. 

kC  These  are  very  old  truths  ;  but  I  cannot  forbear  to  speak  in  this  strain  to-day, 
because  I  believe  the  time  has   come  when  the  people  loudly  demand  that  these 


PUBLIC    RECORD   OF    GROVER   CLEVELAND.  G9 

principles  shall  be  sincerely,  and  without  mental  reservation,  adopted  as  a  rule  of 
conduct.  And  I  am  assured  that  the  result  of  the  campaign  upon  which  we  enter 
to-day  will  demonstrate  that  the  citizens  of  Buffalo  will  not  tolerate  the  man  or  the 
party  who  has  been  unfaithful  to  public  trusts.  I  say  these  things  to  a  convention 
of  Democrats  because  I  know  that  the  grand  old  party  is  honest,  and  they  cannot 
be  unwelcome  to  you.  Let  us  then  in  all  sincerity  promise  the  people  an  improve- 
ment in  our  municipal  affairs  ;  and  if  the  opportunity  is  offered  to  us,  as  it  surely 
will  be,  let  us  faithfully  keep  that  promise.  By  this  means,  and  by  this  means 
alone,  can  our  success  rest  upon  a  firm  foundation  and  our  party  ascendency  be 
permanently  assured.  Our  opponents  will  wage  a  bitter  and  determined  warfare  ; 
but  with  united  and  hearty  effort  we  shall  achieve  a  victory  for  our  entire  ticket. 
And  at  this  day,  and  with  my  record  before  you,  I  trust  it  is  unnecessary  for  me 
to  pledge  to  you  my  most  earnest  endeavors  to  bring  about  this  result ;  and  if 
elected  to  the  position  for  which  you  have  nominated  me,  I  shall  do  my  whole 
duty  to  the  party  ;  but  none  the  less,  I  hope,  to  the  citizens  of  Buffalo." 

In  an  address  delivered  at  Buffalo  upon  the  occasion  of  the  semi-centennial 
celebration  of  that  city,  July  3,  1882,  when  Mayor,  he  said  : 

Duties  of  Citizenship. 

#  *  *  «  ^nc[  in  flrig  our  day  0f  pride  and  self-gratification,  there  is,  I  think, 
one  lesson  at  least,  which  we  may  learn  from  the  men  who  have  come  down  to  us 
from  a  former  generation.  In  the  day  of  the  infancy  of  the  city  which  they 
founded,  and  for  many  years  afterwards,  the  people  loved  their  city  so  well  that 
they  would  only  trust  the  management  of  its  affairs  in  the  strongest  and  best  of 
hands  ;  and  no  man  in  those  days  was  so  engrossed  in  his  own  business  but  he 
could  find  some  time  to  devote  to  public  concerns.  Read  the  names  of  the  men 
who  held  places  in  this  municipality  fifty  years  ago,  and  food  for  reflection  will 
be  found.  Is  it  true  that  the  city  of  to-day,  with  its  large  population,  and  with 
its  vast  and  varied  interests,  needs  less  and  different  care  than  it  did  fifty  years 
ago  ? 

"  "We  boast  of  our  citizenship  to-night,  But  this  citizenship  brings  with  it  duties 
not  unlike  those  ice  owe  our  neighbor  and  our  God.  There  is- no  better  time  than  this 
for  self-examination.  He  who  deems  himself  too  pure  and  holy  to  take  part  in  the 
affairs  of  his  city,  will  meet  the  fact  that  better  men  than  he  have  thought  it  their 
duty  to  do  so.  He  who  cannot  spare  a  moment  in  his  greed  and  selfishness  to 
devote  to  public  concerns,  will,  perhaps,  find  a  well  grounded  fear  that  he  may 
become  the  prey  of  public  plunderers  ;  and  he  who  indolently  cares  not  who 
administers  the  government  of  this  city  will  find  that  he  is  living  falsely,  and  in 
the  neglect  of  his  highest  duty."    *    *  "* 

Good  and  Pure  Government  Necessary  to  Progress. 

Again,  in  an  address  when  laying  the  corner  stone   of  the  Young  Men's 

Christian  Association  Building,  at  Buffalo,  his  own  home,  September  7,  1882,  he 

said  : 

*  *  *  "  We  all  hope  and  expect  that  our  city  has  entered  upon  a  course  of 
unprecedented  prosperity  and  growth.  But  to  my  mind  not  all  the  signs  about  us 
point  more  surely  to  real  greatness  than  the  event  which  we  here  celebrate.  Good 
and  pure  government  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  wealth  and  progress  of  every  com- 
munity. As  the  chief  executive  of  this  proud  city,  I  congratulate  all  my  fellow 
citizens  that  to-day  we  lay  the  foundation  stone  of  an  edifice  which  shall  be  a 
beautiful  ornament,  and,  what  is  more  important,  shall  enclose  within  it  walls 
such  earnest  Christian  endeavors  as  must  make  easier  all  our  efforts  to  administer 
safely  and  honestly  a  good  municipal  government. " 

Upon  assuming  the  wider  and  more  responsible  duties  of  Governor,  it  is  found 
that  there  is  no  abandonment  of  those  principles,  the  application  of  which,  in  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  Buffalo,  had  made  him  the  focus  of  the  eyes  of  the 
State.  And  so  is  found  in  his  first  annual  message  to  the  Legislature  character- 
istic utterances  as  follows  : 

Reform  in   Civil  Service. 

"  It  is  submitted  that  the  appointment  of  subordinates  in  the  several  State 
departments,  and  their  tenure  of  office  or  employment  should  be  based  upon  fitness 


70  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF    GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

and  efficiency,  and  that  this  principle  should  be  embodied  in  legislative  enactment 
to  the  end  that  the  policy  of  the  State  may  conform  to  the  reasonable  public 
demand  on  that  subject." 

By  this  pledge,  if  it  may  be  so  termed,  his  subsequent  administration  has  been 

governed,  and  it  is  to  be  noted  here  that  he  is  the  first  to  connect  the  public  schools 

with  the  civil  service,  as  will  be  seen  by  this  extract  from  his  annual  message  of 

1884: 

"  New  York  then  leads  in  the  inauguration  of  a  comprehensive  State  system  of 
civil  service.  The  principle  of  selecting  the  subordinate  employees  of  the  State  on 
the  ground  of  capacity  and  fitness,  ascertained  according  to  fixed  and.  impartial 
rules,  without  regard  to  political  predilections  and  with  reasonable  assurance  of 
retention  and  promotion  in  case  of  meritorious  service,  is  now  the  established 
policy  of  the  State.  The  children  of  our  citizens  are  educated  and  trained  in 
schools  maintained  at  common  expense,  and  the  people,  as  a  whole,  have  a  right  to 
demand  the  selection  for  the  public  service  of  those  whose  natural  aptitudes  have 
been  improved  by  the  educational  facilities  furnished  by  the  State.  The  applica- 
tion to  the  public  service  of  the  same  rule  which  prevails  in  ordinary  business  of 
employing  those  whose  knowledge  and  training  best  fit  them  for  the  duties  at  hand, 
without  regard  to  other  considerations,  must  elevate  and  improve  the  civil  service 
and  eradicate  from  it  many  evils  from  which  it  has  long  suffered." 

Municipal  Government. 

"  The  formation  and  administration  of  the  government  of  cities  are  subjects  of 
much  public  interest,  and  of  great  importance  to  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
State.  The  formation  of  such  governments  is  properly  matter  for  most  careful 
legislation. 

"  They  should  be  so  organized  as  to  be  simple  in  their  details  and  to  cast  upon 
the  people  affected  thereby  the  full  responsibility  of  their  administration.  The 
different  departments  should  be  in  such  accord  as  in  their  operation  to  lead  toward 
the  same  results.  Divided  counsels  and  divided  responsibility  to  the  people  on  the 
part  of  municipal  officers,  it  is  believed,  gives  rise  to  much  that  is  objectionable  in 
the  government  of  cities.  If,  to  remedy  this  evil,  the  chief  executive  should  be 
made  answerable  to  the  people  for  the  proper  conduct  of  the  city's  affairs,  it  is 
quite  clear  that  his  power  in  the  selection  of  those  who  manage  its  different  depart- 
ments should  be  greatly  enlarged." 

Primary  Elections. 

"The  protection  of  the  'people  in  their  primaries  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  secured 
by  the  early  passage  of  a  law  for  that  purpose  which  will  rid  the  present  system  of 
the  evils  which  surround  it,  tending  to  defraud  the  people  of  rights  closely  con- 
nected with  their  privileges  as  citizens. " 

Special  Legislation^ 

"  It  is  constantly  expected  that  those  who  represent  the  people  in  the  present 
Legislature  will  address  themselves  to  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as  are  for  the 
benefit  of  all  the  citizens  of  the  State,  to  the  exclusion  of  special  legislation  and 
interference  with  affairs  which  should  be  managed  by  the  localities  to  which  they 
pertain. 

"  It  is  not  only  the  right  of  the  people  to  administer  their  local  government,  but 
it  should  be  made  their  duty  to  do  so.  Any  departure  from  this  doctrine  is  an  aban- 
donment of  the  principles  upon  which  our  institutions  are  founded,  and  a  conces- 
sion of  the  infirmity  and  partial  failure  of  the  theory  of  a  representative  form  of 
government. 

"  If  the  aid  of  the  Legislature  is  invoked  to  further  projects  which  should  be 
subject  to  local  control  and  management,  suspicions  should  be  at  once  aroused,  and 
the  interference  sought  should  be  promptly  and  sternly  refused. 

"If  local  rule  is  in  any  instance  bad,  weak  or  inefficient,  those  who  suffer  from 
maladministration  have  the  remedy  within  their  own  control .  If,  through  their 
neglect  or  inattention,  it  falls  into  unworthy  hands,  or  if  bad  methods  and  prac- 
tices gain  a  place  in  its  administration,  it  is  neither  harsh  nor  unjust  to  remit  those 
who  are  responsible  for  those  conditions  to  their  self-invited  fate,  until  their  inter- 
est, if  no  better  motive,  prompts  them  to  an  earnest  and  active  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  good  citizenship." 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  71 

Watching  the  Interests  of  the  Poor. 

How  carefully  the  interests  of  the  poor  and  laboring  classes  are  watched  by 
the  Governor  was  shown  to  the  State  by  his  refusal  to  make  a  law  of  the  bill 
amending  the  act  entitled  "  An  act  to  revise  the  statutes  of  this  State  relating  to 
banks,  banking  and  trust  companies." 

"  State  of  New  York,  Executive  Chamber,  ) 
"  Albany,  May  19,  1883.         J 

"  [Filed  with  Secretary  of  State.] 

""  Memorandum  filed  with  Assembly  bill  No.  592,  entitled  "  An  act  to  amend  Chapter 
four  hundred  and  nineteen  of  the  laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-two,  entitled 
'  An  act  to  revise  the  statutes  of  this  State  relating  to  banks,  banking,  and  trust 
companies.'"    Not  approved. 

"  I  have  listened  to  the  arguments  of  the  friends  of  this  measure,  and  am  still 
convinced  that  the  present  law  should  not  be  changed  in  the  manner  proposed. 

"  The  bill  before  me  provides  that  savings  banks  may  invest  the  money  of 
depositors  in  bonds  and  securities  which  are  excluded  by  the  present  carefully 
prepared  statutes  regulating  this  subject.  Among  other  things,  it  permits  the 
investment  of  such  funds  '  in  other  good  securities  (excepting  bills  of  exchange, 
promissory  notes,  deposits  of  personal  property,  and  stocks  to  which  by  law  the 
personal  liability  of  stockholders  attaches)  which  may  be  approved  by  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Banking  Department,  the  Governor,  Comptroller  and  State  Treasurer, 
or  a  majority  of  them.' 

"  It  must  be  conceded,  I  think,  that  no  absolute  certainty  attends  the  judgment 
of  men  in  relation  to  the  matter  of  good  securities.  The  State  officers  mentioned 
in  the  bill  should  not  be  burdened  or  intrusted  with  this  important  duty. 

' '  I  see  no  provision  in  the  bill  by  which  any  security  can  be  withdrawn  from 
the  list  if  once  approved  by  these  officers,  even  though  it  may  become  unsafe  or 
worthless  as  an  investment. 

'•  Consideration  have  been  earnestly  urged  upon  me  touching  the  ability  of 
savings  banks  to  pay  a  fair  interest  to  depositors,  with  the  present  limitation  upon 
the  character  of  their  investments. 

"  But  I  am  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  these  institutions  are,  as  their  name 
implies,  a  place  of  deposit  for  the  savings  of  those  among  the  poor  and  laboring 
people,  who  see  the  propriety  of  putting  aside  a  part  of  their  earnings  for  future 
need,  or  as  the  beginning  of  an  accumulation.  Such  depositors  are  not,  and 
should  not  be,  investors  seeking,  as  a  paramount  purpose,  an  income  by  way  of 
interest  on  their  deposits.  When  they  come  to  that,  there  are  other  instrumentali- 
ties which  should  be  employed. 

"  Absolute  safety  of  the  principal  deposited  is  what  the  patrons  of  savings 
banks  should  seek  ;  and  any  governmental  control  over  these  institutions  should, 
first  of  all,  be  directed  to  that  end. 

"  I  am  not  satisfied  that  this  is  done,  when  State  officials,  already  charged  with 
onerous  duties,  are  called  to  decide  upon  the  value  of  proposed  securities,  and 
when  the  safety  of  deposits  is  left  to  their  determination,  and  the  care  of  directors 
and  trustees  often  tempted  to  speculative  ventures,  beyond  their  power  to  resist. 

'*  A  due  regard  to  the  protection  of  a  class  of  citizens  which  should  especially 
deserve  the  care  of  the  State,  requires,  I  believe,  that  the  institutions  having  their 
savings  in  charge  should  be  limited  in  the  use  of  such  deposits  to  investments 
described  in  the  law,  and  which  as  nearly  as  possible  insure  absolute  exemption 
from  loss. 

' '  I  am  unwilling  to  assent  to  the  increased  risk,  which,  I  am  convinced,  lurks 
in  the  provisions  of  the  proposed  bill. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND." 

Protecting  the  Ballot  Boxes. 

A  vigorous  proclamation  against  violation  of  laws  governing  elections  in  this 
State  was  one  of  the  acts  of  the  Governor,  which  excited  most  favorable  comment 
at  the  time  of  its  issuance. 


72  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

State  of  New  York. 
Proclamation  by  Orover  Cleveland,   Governor. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  State  directs  that  the  Governor  '  shall  take  care  that 
the  laws  are  faithfully  executed.' 

"  An  appeal  has  been  made  to  the  Executive,  asking  that  the  laws  relating  to 
bribery  and  corruption  at  elections  be  enforced.  All  must  acknowledge  that  there 
is  nothing  more  important  in  our  form  of  government  than  that  the  will  of  the 
people,  which  is  absolutely  the  foundation  upon  which  our  institutions  rest,  should 
be  fairly  expressed  and  honestly  regarded.  Without  this,  our  system  is  a  sham 
and  a  contrivance,  which  it  is  brazen  effrontery  to  call  a  republican  form  of 
government. 

' '  All  this  is  recognized,  in  theory,  by  provisions  in  the  Constitution  of  our 
State,  and  by  stringent  penal  enactments,  aimed  at  the  use  of  money  and  other 
corrupt  means  to  unlawfully  influence  the  suffrages  of  the  people  and  to  thwart 
their  will.  And  yet  I  am  convinced  that  a  disregard  of  those  enactments  is  fre- 
quent, and  in  many  cases  shamelessly  opened  and  impudent. 

"  I,  therefore,  call  upon  all  District  Attorneys  within  this  State,  and  all  Sheriffs 
and  peace  officers,  and  others  having  in  charge  the  execution  of  the  laws,  to  exer- 
cise the  utmost  diligence  in  the  discovery  and  punishment  of  violations  of  the 
statutes  referred  to,  and  they  are  admonished  that  neglect  of  duty  in  this  regard 
will  be  promptly  dealt  with. 

"  And  I  request  that  all  good  citizens,  in  the  performance  of  a  plain  duty,  for 
the  protection  of  free  institutions  and  in  their  own  interests,  report  to  the  proper 
authorities  the  commission  of  any  offense  against  the  statutes  passed  to  preserve  the 
purity  of  the  ballot. 

Done  at  the  Capitol,  in  the  City  of  AHwry,  this  second  day  of  Novem- 
[l.  s.]  ber,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 

eighty-three. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 
By  the  Governor  : 

Daniel  S.   Lamont, 

Private  Secretary. 

Excellent    Affirmative  Acts. 

The  above  are  culled  from  his  speeches  and  messages  and  while  they  serve  to 
afford  a  glimpse  of  the  man  in  his  public  capacity,  they  by  no  means  fill  out  the 
measures  of  his  acts.  His  affirmative  acts  with  reference  to  legislative  enact- 
ments, are  not  so  showy,  but  nevertheless  they  are  as  important  and  far  reaching 
in  their  results,  and  as  plainly  indicate  the  principles  by  which  his  life  is  guided. 
A  number  of  acts  in  the  interest  of  the  people  were  signed  by  him  as  follows  : 

One  was  the  act  to  prevent  baby  farming  (Chap.  40,  Lfews  1883). 

One  was  the  act  to  provide  for  the  incorporation  and  regulation  of  co-operative 
or  assessment  life  and  casualty  insurance  associations  and  societies  (Chap.  175, 
Laws  1883). 

Though  strongly  pressed  by  powerful  influences,  he  ranged  himself  upon  the 
side  of  the  people  in  signing  the  bill  providing  that  the  fare  to  be  charged  by  the 
Utica  and  Black  River  Railroad  Company  should  not  exceed  three  cents  per  mile. 
(Chap.  174,  Laws  1883.) 

Another  was  the  bill  providing  that  it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  board  of 
supervisors  to  designate  some  proper  authority  other  than  that  designated  by  law 
for  the  care  of  paupers  and  the  custody  of  criminals,  to  inter  the  body  of  an  hon- 
orably discharged  soldier  or  sailor  of  the  late  rebellion,  who  should  die  without 
means  sufficient  to  defray  funeral  expenses.     (Chapter  247,  Laws  1883.) 

Another  was  the  signing  of  a  bill  popularly  known  as  the  "Emigration  Com- 
mission bill,"  which  had  for  its  purpose  the  improvement  of  the  means  of  receiving 
and  caring  for  emigrants  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York,  a  bill  in  which  he  was 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  73 

greatly  interested,  the  purposes  of  which  were  defeated  in  the  Senate  in  1883  by  a 
bargain  with  Republicans.     (Chap.  286,  Laws  1883.) 

An  act  concerning  pawnbrokers,  and  regulating  the  rate  of  interest  to  be 
charged  for  loans.     (Chap.  339,  Laws  1883.) 

The  bill  to  provide  for  the  establishment  of  a  bureau  of  labor  statistics,  reference 
to  which  was  made  under  the  head  of  labor.     (Chap.  356,  Laws  1883.) 

An  act  in  relation  to  receivers  of  corporations,  and  was  in  the  interest  of  credit- 
ors in  that  it  prevented  the  assets  of  insolvent  corporations  from  being  eaten  up. 
(Chap.  378,  Laws  1883.) 

The  bill  to  suppress  political  assessments  upon  those  holding  place  under  the 
State  government.    (Chap.  422,  Laws  1883.) 

The  bill  to  provide  for  submitting  to  the  electors  of  the  State  the  propositon  to 
abolish  contract  labor  from  State  prisons,  referred  to  under  the  head  of  labor. 
(Chap.  468,  Laws  1883.) 

A  Notable  Fact. 

These  are  some  of  the  affirmative  acts  which  were  received  by  the  applause  of 
the  State.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  course  of  the  Governor  with  reference  to 
legislation,  his  rigid  scrutiny  of  bills,  and  prompt  vetoes  of  those  which  were  im- 
proper, had  a  marked  eff eet  upon  the  Legislature  of  1884.  Long  before  that  Legis- 
lature assembled,  one  of  the  established  facts  current  to  the  day,  was  that  the  Gov- 
ernor could  not  be  cajoled  or  tricked  into  the  signing  of  that  which  was  not  only 
improper  but  even  doubtful,  or  into  withholding  his  signature  from  that  which  was 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  Consequently  the  members  governed  themselves  ac- 
cordingly, and  private  bilis  remained  in  the  committees  to  which  they  were  re- 
ferred, with  hardly  an  exception. 

Some  Acts  of  1884. 

Among  the  bills  of  general  importance  signed  in  1884  was  the  act  providing 
that  no  contracts  for  convict  labor  in  prisons,  penitentiaries  or  reformatories 
should  be  renewed,  pending  contracts  extended,  or  new  ones  made.  (Chap.  21, 
Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  providing  for  a  more  efficient  examination  of  the  affairs  of  banks, 
banking  and  trust  companies  by  the  superintendent  of  banks.  (Chap.  47,  Laws 
1884. 

The  bill  permitting  the  use  of  State  armories  by  associations  of  discharged 
soldiers.     (Chap.  71,  Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  to  prevent  deception  in  sales  of  dairy  products,  more  popularly  known 
as  the  Oleomargarine  bill,  a  measure  most  earnestly  desiredby  the  vast  dairy  inter- 
ests of  the  State.     (Chap.  202,  Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  entitled  ' '  An  act  in  relation  to  public  education  in  the  city  of  New 
Yord,"  which  in  fact  wiped  out  the  color  and  race  line.     (Chap.  248,  Laws  1884.) 

The  act  to  provide  for  the  completion  of  the  records  of  New  York  volunteers  of 
the  "War  of  the  Rebellion,  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  for  safe-keeping  thereof.     (Chap.  259,  Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  amending  chapter  339,  Laws  1883,  concerning  pawnbrokers,  widening 
its  application  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  furniture  stored  as  collateral  for  loans. 
(Chap.  363,  Laws  of  1884.) 

The  bill  authorizing  the  slaughter  of  animals  infected  with  contagious 
diseases  and  providing  the  payment  of  their  actual  value  to  the  owner.  (Chap. 
408,  Laws  1884.) 


74  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

The  bill  preferring  honorable  discharged  soldiers  and  sailors  in  employment  in 
the  public  service  of  the  State.     (Chap.  319,  Laws  1884.) 

An  act  relating  to  the  custody  and  care  of  indigent  and  pauper  children  by 
charitable  institutions.     (Chap.  438,  Laws  1884.) 

The  act  which  provides  greater  safeguards  for  travellers  upon  the  railroads  of 
this  State,  affixing  penalties  for  neglecting  to  take  the  precautions  provided  for. 
(Chap  439,  Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  providing  for  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  character  and  condition 
of  tenement  houses  in  the  City  of  New  York.     (Chap.  448,  Laws  of  1884.) 

The  act  providing  that  telegraph  and  electric  light  companies  shall  lay  their 
wires  underground  in  cities.     (Chap.  534,  Laws  1884.) 

The  bill  to  provide  for  the  additional  accommodations  for  common  schools 
(Chap.  455,  Laws  1884.) 

While  the  above  will  show  that  the  Governor  has  sedulously  kept  in  view  the 
old  Democratic  maxim  of  "the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,"  it  will  also 
show  that  a  strict  regard  for  the  best  interests  of  the  people  has  actuated  him  in  all 
respects. 

In  the  Matter  of  Appointments. 

The  same  motive  is  found  in  his  appointments  to  office.  More  than  any  other 
consideration,  that  of  distinguished  fitness  for  place  has  governed  him  in  the  selec- 
tion of  persons  to  fill  the  important  subordinate  places  of  the  State  government. 

Superintendent  of  Public  "Works. 

Thus  James  Shanahan,  a  great  portion  of  whose  life  had  been  spent  in  connec- 
tion with  the  management  of  the.  canal  system  of  the  State,  and  whose  familiarity 
with  its  needs  and  requirements  was  exceeded  by  no  one,  was  appointed  to  be 
Superintendent  of  Public  Works.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  Governor's  methods 
that  it  was  eminently  practical  appointment.  No  doubt  others  did  have  more 
powerful  political  influences  behind  them.  This  man's  eminent  qualifications  for 
the  work  before  him  weighed  against  everything  else,  so  he  was  appointed. 

Departrr\er\t  of  Insurance. 

The  Department  of  Insurance  was  another  most  important  place  and  very 
desirable  in  the  eyes  of  many.  The  pressure  was  great.  But,  in  the  office  of  the 
Department  was  one  who  had  been  virtually  the  head  for  years.  Administra- 
tions had  come  and  gone,  and  superintendents  of  both  political  faiths  had  come 
and  gone,  but  under  them  had  remained  as  deputy,  John  A.  McCall,  who  had 
entered  the  office  as  a  boy  and  familiarizing  himself  with  every  branch  and  step 
of  the  business,  had  at  last  become  such  a  necessity  to  the  office,  that  Republican 
heads  retained  him,  though  a  Democrat.  Governor  Cleveland  would  not  have 
been  Grover  Cleveland,  knowing  these  facts,  if  he  had  not  appointed  John  A. 
McCall,  Jr.     So  Mr.  McCall  became  the  Superintendent  of  Insurance. 

Fyailroad  Com  mission^ 

When  the  Railroad  Commission  was  to  be  appointed,  he  found  that  under  the 
law  certain  commercial  bodies  of  New  York  City  could  suggest  one  for  appoint- 
ment, and  that  it  was  further  provided  that  one  should  be  a  Democrat,  and  one  a 
Republican,  one  of  whom  should  be  a  man  acquainted  with  the  railroad  business. 
An  examination  of  the  law,  the  field  the  new  board  was  to  occupy,  the  duties  it 
would  be  called  upon  to  perform,  and  the  profound  legal  questions  it  would  be 
compelled  to  meet,   showed  conclusively  that  there  must  be  a  lawyer  upon  the 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  75 

"board.  The  commercial  boards  did  not  assist  the  Governor,  for  the  person  named 
by  them  was  neither  a  Democrat,  a  Republican,  one  acquainted  with  the  railroad 
business,  nor  a  lawyer.  The  gentleman  he  did  appoint  as  a  Republican  was  one 
acquainted  with  the  railroad  business,  and  that  was  Mr.  William  E.  Rogers,  and 
in  doing  this  he  secured  to  the  board  the  services  of  a  superior  civil  engineer  as 
well,  for  Mr.  Rogers  is  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and  holds  the  certificate  of  a 
civil  engineer.  Consequently  the  Democratic  member  of  the  Railroad  Commission 
had  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  this  was  John  J.  Kernan,  a  son  of  Francis  Kernan,  who 
had  won  a  leading  place  at  the  bar  of  Central  New  York,  a  bar  held  in  high  repute 
for  the  number  of  great  men  it  has  given  to  the  State.  Thus  it  was,  under  a  law, 
the  limitations  of  which  were  most  unwise,  the  Governor  in  two  men,  while 
obejing  the  law  in  every  particular,  gave  to  the  Board  of  Railroad  Commissioners 
one  acquainted  with  the  railroad  business,  a  civil  engineer  and  a  lawyer.  The 
result  has  justified  the  selections  of  the  Governor. 

Reformir\g  Control  of  the  New  York.  Capitol. 

The  re-organization  of  the  Capitol  control,  very  much  needed,  gave  the 
Governor  an  opportunity  to  perform  real  service  to  the  people.  So  when  he 
selected  Mr.  Isaac  G.  Perry  to  be  Capitol  Commissioner  he  gave  to  the  State  a 
man  of  practical  knowledge  and  extraordinary  efficiency.  The  Capitol,  the  work 
upon  which  had  become  a  by- word  and  a  reproach,  seemed  to  take  a  leap  forward 
at  once,  and  the  visitors  to  the  Capitol  could  see  it  fairly  grow  under  his  hands. 
More  was  accomplished  in  a  few  months  with  the  same  amount  of  money,  than 
had  ever  been  known  before.  A  factious  Republican  opposition  fearing  the  effect 
of  this  reform  upon  the  people  undertook  to  counteract  its  effect  by  an  inquisitorial 
investigation,  the  results  of  which  were,  in  fact,  but  to  show  in  brighter  colors 
the  wonderful  work  accomplished,  and  the  committee  of  investigation  was  fairly 
shamed  into  commending  the  labor  performed,  and  endorsing  the  administration 
of  this  department,  and  all  the  more  as  their  factious  opposition  had  interfered 
with  the  progress  of  the  work,  and  laid  an  additional  burden  of  $500,000  at  least 
upon  the  people,  while  robbing  1,200  laboring  men  of  six  months'  work. 

Of  a  like  character  was  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Charles  B.  Andrews  to  be 
Superintendent  of  Public  Buildings.  This  also  was  an  eminently  characteristic 
appointment,  based,  more  than  anything  else,  upon  the  Governor's  own  knowledge 
of  the  fitness  of  the  man  for  the  place.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  cases,  the  result  has 
justified  the  selection. 

Local  Appointments. 

Who  forgets  the  ringing  applause  which  greeted  the  appointment  of  Wheeler 
H.  Peckham,  to  be  District  Attorney  of  New  York,  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by 
the  death  of  the  Hon.  John  McKeon  ?  And  when  the  continuous  ill  health  com- 
pelled Mr.  Peckham  to  lay  down  the  duties  he  had  so  recently  assumed,  was  the 
applause  less  hearty  that  saluted  his  successor,  Peter  B.  Olney  ? 

One  of  the  last  appointments  made  by  the  Governor,  that  of  Henry  Wilder 
Allen,  to  be  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  is  of.  the  same  high  character. 

The  above  does  not  embrace  all  of  his  appointments ;  it  does  not  show  those  of 
the  Civil  Service  Commissioners,  nor  of  the  Commissioner  of  Emigration  that  gave 
such  widespread  satisfaction,  William  H.  Murtha,  but  which  was  defeated  in  the 
Senate  of  1883  by  a  combination  with  Republicans  by  certain  Senators  ;  nor  the 
minor  appointments,  selected  with  the  same  care  and  same  regard  for  fitness. 


76  PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

«« 'Where  tr\e  Honor  Lies." 

Indeed,  so  high  is  the  standard  erected  by  the  Governor,  that  the  honor  attached 
is  not  in  the  place  to  be  occupied,  but  in  the  fact  that  the  appointee  has  been 
selected  by  a  Governor  whose  standard  is  so  high. 


» »■  0  ^  < 


Grover  Cleveland  a  Tried  and  Consistent  Democrat. 

Though  deserving  and  receiving  as  a  public  officer  the  enthusiastic  support  of 
the  great  body  of  his  fellow-citizens,  irrespective  of  party,  Governor  Cleveland  is 
a  loyal  member  of  the  Democratic  party.  To  this  fact  his  record,  his  speeches, 
his  principles  and  the  voice  of  his  own  neighborhood  bear  concurrent  testimony. 

As  a  Democrat  he  was,  in  1863,  made  assistant  district  attorney  of  the  county 
of  Erie.  As  a  Democrat  he  was,  in  1870,  chosen  to  be  county  sheriff.  As  a  Dem- 
ocrat he  was,  in  1881,  elected  to  be  mayor  of  Buffalo.  As  a  Democrat,  in  1882,  he 
was  elected  to  be  Governor  of  the  State,  and  now  he  stands  as  the  chosen  Demo- 
cratic candidate  for  the  Presidenc}^.  In  these  twenty-one  years  since  his  first  desig- 
nation for  public  office  by  the  Democrats  he  has  six  times  received  the  approval  of 
the  official  councils  of  the  party,  and  the  people  having  failed  to  affirm  this  selection 
only  once  in  the  course  of  these  twenty-one  years,  he  may  in  every  sense  be  said  to 
have  attained  majority  as  a  Democrat, 

This  long  and  unbroken  testimony  to  his  loyalty  to  the  highest  interests  of  his 
party,  has  been  founded  upon  his  public  utterances  and  acts.  He  has  never  pro- 
fessed to  be  other  than  a  Democrat. 

In  accepting  the  Democratic  nomination  for  mayor  of  Buffalo  in  1881,  he 
said : 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Convention — I  am  informed  that  you  have  bestowed 
upon  me  the  nomination  for  the  office  of  Mayor.  It  certainly  is  a  great  honor  to  be 
thought  fit  to  be  the  chief  officer  of  a  great  and  prosperous  city  like  ours,  having 
such  important  and  varied  interests.  I  hoped  that  your  choice  might  fall  upon 
some  other  and  more  worthy  member  of  the  city  Democracy,  for  personal  and 
private  considerations  have  made  the  question  of  acceptance  on  my  part  a  difficult 
one.  But  because  I  am  a  Democrat,  and  because  I  think  no  one  has  a  right  at  this 
time  of  all  others  to  consult  his  own  inclinations  as  against  the  call  of  his  party  and 
fellow-citizens,  and  hoping  that  I  may  be  of  use  to  you  in  your  efforts  to  inaugurate 
a  better  rule  of  municipal  affairs,  I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  to  me.  *  *  * 
I  am  assured  that  the  result  of  the  campaign  upon  which  we  enter  to-day,  will 
demonstrate  that  the  citizens  of  Buffalo  will  not  tolerate  the  man  or  the  party  who 
has  been  unfaithful  to  public  trusts.  I  say  these  things  to  a  convention  of  Demo- 
crats because  I  know  that  the  grand  old  party  is  honest,  and  they  cannot  be 
unwelcome  to  you.  Let  us  then  in  all  sincerity  promise  the  people  an  improvement 
in  our  municipal  affairs  ;  and  if  the  opportunity  is  offered  to  us,  as  it  surely  will  be, 
let  us  faithfully  keep  that  promise.  By  this  means,  and  by  this  means  alone,  can 
our  success  rest  upon  a  firm  foundation  and  our  party  ascendancy  be  permanently 
assured.  Our  opponents  will  wage  a  bitter  and  determined  warfare  ;  but  with 
united  and  hearty  effort  we  shall  achieve  a  victory  for  our  entire  ticket.  And  at 
this  day,  and  with  my  record  before  you,  I  trust  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  pledge 
to  you  my  most  earnest  endeavors  to  bring  about  this  result ;  and  if  elected  to  the 
position  for  which  you  have  nominated  me,  I  shall  do  my  whole  duty  to  the  party, 
but  none  the  less,  I  hope,  to  the  citizens  of  Buffalo." 

His  nomination  for  Governor  was  accepted  in  a  letter  to  the  committee  of  the 
Democratic  convention,  in  which  he  said,  "  The  platform  of  principles  adopted  by 
the  convention  meets  with  my  hearty  approval.  The  doctrines  therein  enunciated 
are  so  distinctly  and  explicitly  stated  that  their  amplification  seems  scarcely  neces- 


PUBLIC    RECORD    OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND.  77 

sary.     If  elected  to  the  office  for  which  I  have  been  nominated,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
impress  them  upon  my  administration  and  make  them  the  policy  of  the  State." 

At  the  reception  given  to  him  by  the  Manhattan  Club  in  the  City  of  New  York, 
December  6,  1882,  he  expressed  himself  in  these  sterling  words  : 

"  You  who  lead,  and  those  who  follow,  should  all  strive  to  commend  to  the 
people  in  this,  the  time  of  our  opportunity,  not  an  administration  alone,  but  a  party 
which  shall  appear  adequate  to  their  wants  and  useful  to  their  purposes.  The 
time-honored  doctrines  of  the  Democratic  party  are  dear  to  me.  If  honestly  applied 
in  their  purity  I  know  the  affairs  of  the  Government  would  be  faithfully  and 
honestly  administered,  and  I  believe  that  all  the  wants  and  needs  of  the  people 
would  be  met.  They  have  survived  all  changes,  and  good  and  patriotic  men  have 
clung  to  them  through  all  disasters  as  the  hope  of  political  salvation.  Let  us  hold 
them  as  a  sacred  trust,  and  let  us  not  forget  that  an  intelligent,  reading,  thinking 
people  will  look  to  the  party  which  they  put  in  power  to  supply  all  their  various 
needs  and  wants,  and  the  party  which  keeps  pace  with  the  development  and  pro- 
gress of  the  times,  which  keeps  in  sight  its  land-marks  and  yet  observes  those 
things  which  are  in  advance,  and  which  will  continue  true  to  the  people  as  well  as 
to  its  traditions,  will  be  the  dominant  party  of  the  future." 

In  a  message  sent  to  the  Assembly  April  9,  1883,  he  said  : 

"I  believe  in  an  open  and  sturdy  partisanship,  which  secures  the  legitimate 
advantages  of  party  supremacy ;  but  parties  were  made  for  the  people,  and  I  am 
unwilling,  knowingly,  to  give  my  assent  to  measures  purely  partisan  which  will 
sacrifice  or  endanger  their  interests." 

And  upon  the  occasion  of  a  serenade  from  the  Albany  Young  Men's  Demo- 
cratic Club,  upon  the  evening  of  his  nomination,  July  10,  1884,  he  spoke  as  follows  : 

Fellow-citizens — I  cannot  but  be  gratified  with  this  kindly  greeting.  I  find 
that  I  am  fast  reaching  the  point  where  I  shall  count  the  people  of  Albany  not 
merely  as  fellow-citizens,  but  as  townsmen  and  neighbors. 

"  On  this  occasion  I  am,  of  course,  aware  that  you  pay  no  compliment  to  a  citi- 
zen, and  present  no  personal  tribute,  but  that  you  have  come  to  demonstrate  your 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  a  cause  in  which  you  are  heartily  enlisted. 

"  The  American  people  are  about  to  exercise,  in  its  highest  sense,  their  power 
of  right  and  sovereignty.  They  are  to  call  in  review  before  them  their  public 
servants  and  representatives  of  political  parties,  and  demand  of  them  an  account 
of  their  stewardship. 

"  Parties  may  be  so  long  in  power,  and  may  become  so  arrogant  and  careless 
of  the  interests  of  the  people  as  to  grow  heedless  of  their  responsibility  to  their 
masters.  But  the  time  comes,  as  certainly  as  death,  when  the  people  weigh  them 
in  the  balance. 

"  The  issues  to  be  adjudicated  by  the  nation's  great  assize  are  made  up  and  are 
about  to  be  submitted. 

"We  believe  that  the  people  are  not  receiving  at  the  hands  of  the  party,  which 
for  nearly  twenty-four  years  has  directed  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  the  full  benefits 
to  which  they  are  entitled,  of  a  pure,  just,  and  economical  rule  ;  and  we  believe 
that  the  ascendancy  of  genuine  Democratic  principles  will  insure  a  better  govern- 
ment, and  greater  happiness  and  prosperity  to  all  the  people. 

"  To  reach  the  sober  thought  of  the  nation,  and  to  dislodge  an  enemy  intrenched 
behind  spoils  and  patronage,  involve  a  struggle,  which,  if  we  under-estimate,  we 
invite  defeat.  I  am  profoundly  impressed  with  the  responsibility  of  the  part 
assigned  to  me  in  this  contest.  My  heart,  I  know,  is  in  the  cause,  and  I  pledge 
you  that  no  effort  of  mine  shall  be  wanting  to  secure  the  victory  which  I  believe 
to  be  within  the  achievement  of  the  Democratic  hosts. 

"  Let  us,  then,  enter  upon  the  campaign  now  fairly  opened,  each  one  appre- 
ciating well  the  part  he  has  to  perform,  ready,  with  solid  front,  to  do  battle  for 
better  government,  confidently,  courageously,  always  honorably,  and  with  a  firm 
reliance  upon  the  intelligence  and  patriotism  of  the  American  people. " 

Upon  this  series  of  utterances  G-overnor  Cleveland  is  entitled  to  rely  as  an 
explicit  declaration  of  devotion  to  his  party. 

But  for  his  firm  maintenance  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  Democracy — simpli- 
city of  personal  and  official  life  ;   ready  and  free  access  for  the  people  ;   untiring 


78  PUBLIC    RECORD   OF   GROVER   CLEVELAND. 

industry  and  vigilant  fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  public  duty  ;  rigid  economy  in 
the  expenditure  of  public  funds  ;  strict  construction  of  the  powers  of  public 
servants  and  stern  enforcement  of  the  requirements  upon  them  ;  publicity  and 
purity  of  official  action  ;  fearless  discharge  of  duty  as  seen  by  himself,  and 
inability  to  substitute  the  suggestions  of  others,  not  elected  to  office,  for  the 
judgment  which  he  was  chosen  to  exercise,  stamp  him  as  a  Democrat  in  principle, 
vigorous,  courageous  and  stalwart. 

But  in  the  exercise  of  this  just  preference  for  his  own  party,  he  has  ever  been 
mindful  of  the  truth  that  the  party  is  most  useful,  most  prosperous  and  most  har- 
monious, which  most  nearly  satisfies  the  wants  and  promotes  the  welfare  of  the 
whole  people. 

As  he  said  in  the  speech  at  the  Manhattan  Club  (already  mentioned)  : 

k '  We  stand  to-night  in  the  full  glare  of  a  grand  and  brilliant  manifestation  of 
popular  will,  and  in  the  light  of  it  how  vain  and  weak  appear  the  tricks  of  politi- 
cians and  the  movements  of  partisan  machinery.  He  must  be  blind  who  cannot 
see  that  the  people  well  understand  their  power  and  are  determined  to  use  it  when 
their  rights  and  interests  are  threatened.  There  should  be  no  skepticism  to-night 
as  to  the  strength  and  perpetuity  of  our  popular  government.  Partisan  leaders 
have  learned,  too,  that  the  people  will  not  unthinkingly  follow,  and  that  something 
more  than  unreasoning  devotion  to  a  party  is  necessary  to  secure  their  allegiance. 
*  *  *  *  ^Ye  shan  utterly  fail  to  read  aright  the  signs  of  the  times  if  we  are 
not  fully  convinced  that  parties  are  but  the  instruments  through  which  the  people 
work  their  will,  and  that  when  they  become  less  or  more  the  people  destroy  or 
desert  them." 

Absolutely  accepting  the  Democratic  doctrine  that  the  people  are  not  to  be 
feared  ;  that  they  are  not  to  be  fooled  ;  that  they  approve  courage,  and  that  they 
prefer  the  enduring  right  to  that  which  seems  to  be  expedient  for  the  present,  Gov- 
ernor Cleveland  has  boldly  borne  the  banner  of  Democracy  and  planted  it  upon 
advanced  ground.  Honest  laws  and  their  faithful  administration  have  been  his 
invariable  motto. 


LIFE   OF   THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS.  79 


Life  of  Thomas   A.  Hendricks. 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Vice-President,  was 
"born  near  the  town  of  Zanesville,  Muskingum  county,  Ohio,  on  September  7th, 
1819,  sixteen  years  after  the  admission  of  Ohio  into  the  Union,  and  when  the  State 
of  Indiana,  of  which  he  was  to  become  the  most  distinguished  representative,  was 
not  yet  three  years  old.  Less  than  nine  months  after  the  birth  of  Thomas,  his 
father  removed  to  Madison,  then  the  chief  city  of  Indiana,  the  home  of  his  brother 
William,  and  from  that  time  forward  the  history  of  our  candidate  is  identified 
with  Indiana. 

The  family  is  of  "  Scotch-Irish  "  origin.  On  the  father's  side,  his  people  were 
from  the  North  of  Ireland,  and  the  ancestral  Hendricks,  more  than  a  century  ago, 
settled  in  the  Legonier  Valley,  Westmoreland  county,  Western  Pennsylvania.  A 
brook  flowing  into  the  Conemaugh  is  called  to  this  day  "  Hendricks'  Run,"  and 
obtained  that  name  from  the  fact  that  the  settler  of  a  hundred  years  ago  put  his 
wheel  into  it  and  utilized  it  first  for  milling  purposes.  The  family  grew  in  pros- 
perity and  respect,  and  Abraham,  grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
served  in  various  public  offices,  and  as  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  Pennsylva- 
nia in  the  sessions  of  1792-3,  1793-4,  1796-7  and  1797-8.  Abraham  had  two  sons, 
William  and  John,  both  of  whom  in  early  life  emigrated  from  Pennsylvania  to  the 
growing  West. 

Four  years  before  the  colonies  had  thrown  off  the  English  yoke,  the  Thomson 
family,  of  pure  Scotch  blood,  settled  in  the  Cumberland  Valley  of  Pennsylvania, 
near  Shippensburgh,  Cumberland  county.  From  that  family  has  sprung  distin- 
guished men,  and  of  the  stock  was  Alexander  Thomson,  a  jurist  of  renown,  and 
Frank  Thomson,  vice-president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company. 

Jane  Thomson,  a  sister  of  the  jurist  above  named,  and  'John  Hendricks,  a  son 
of  Abraham,  the  Pennsylvania  legislator,  met  at  the  residence  of  Rev.  Dr.  Black 
in  Pittsburgh,  and  the  acquaintance  there  formed  ended  in  marriage,  the  fruits  of 
which  was  the  birth  of  Thomas  A.  Hendricks. 

William  Hendricks,  the  elder  brother  of  John,  and,  consequently,  the  uncle  of 
Thomas  A.,  had  previous  to  the  marriage  of  his  brother  removed  to  Cincinnati, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law;  subsequently,  he  removed  to  Indiana  and 
quickly  advanced  to  a  leading  position,  being  made  a  Representative  in  Congress, 
the  second  Governor  of  the  State,  and  United  States  Senator.  One  of  the  counties 
named  after  him  is  an  evidence  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  the  people 
of  that,  then  young,  commonwealth.  His  brother  John,  with  his  bride,  followed 
his  track,  and  after  a  brief  residence  in  Ohio,  removed  to  Indiana,  first  settling 
near  Madison,  and  two  years  later  locating  a  farm  which  afterward  became  part 
of  the  site  of  Shelbyville,  the  county  seat  of  Shelby  county. 

John  Hendricks  combined  the  pursuits  of  tanner  and  farmer,  but,  from  his 
force  of  character,  culture  and  commanding  intellect,  rather  than  from  his  occu- 


80  LIFE   OF   THOMAS    A.    HENDRICKS. 

pations,  became  the  foremost  citizen  of  the  community.  The  frontier  home 
built  by  him  of  hewn  logs,  is  still  standing  on  the  "Michigan  turnpike."  While 
young  Tom  was  a  boy,  his  father  erected  a  story-and-a-half  brick  building  a  little 
north  of  the  site  of  the  hewn-log  structure,  and  Tom  drove  the  oxen  for  the  trans- 
portation of  the  necessary  material.  The  lad  led  the  life  of  a  farmer's  boy  (for 
his  father  soon  abandoned  the  tanning  business),  working  in  the  summer  and 
attending  school  in  the  winter. 

The  home  influences  surrounding  the  subject  of  our  sketch  were  of  that  kind 
out  of  which  seem  to  have  come  nearly  all  the  great  and  leading  men  of  America 
— a  strong  and  intelligent  father,  a  superior  and  pious  mother,  the  presiding  genius 
of  a  peaceful  home,  where  religion  had  set  up  a  revered  altar  and  in  which  life 
was  guided  by  a  strict  adherence  to  a  code  of  morals  almost  stern  in  its  conforma- 
tion to  the  Presbyterian  creed.  Moreover,  it  was  a  home  in  which  the  light  of 
hospitality  always  burned  and  where  the  door  stood  ajar  for  all  comers,  whether 
he  was  the  Methodist  circuit  rider,  or  the  man  of  G-od  with  cowl  and  crucifix,  the 
wayfarer  seeking  a  new  home  in  the  forest  of  the  west,  or  the  vagrant  whose  reck- 
lessness made  him  a  suppliant  for  the  bounty  of  the  more  prudent.  It  was  in  such 
a  home,  and  surrounded  by  such  influences,  that  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  grew, 
developed  and  waxed  strong  in  mind  and  body. 

The  lad  attended  the  village  schools  for  a  time  and  then  a  neighbor,  John 
Robinson,  living  six  miles  distant,  having  secured  an  Eastern  instructor  to  prepare 
his  own  bo3rs  for  college,  extended  the  advantages  to  his  neighbors'  boys.  Young 
"Tom"  Hendricks,  having  developed  more  aptitude  for  study  than  for  tilling, 
eagerly  embraced  the  opportunity  and  continued  there  until  the  school  was  broken 
up  by  the  sudden  departure  of  the  teacher,  but  the  instruction  there  received 
enabled  him  to  enter  Hanover  College,  located  on  the  Ohio  river,  near  Madison, 
seventy  miles  south  of  Shelby ville.  A  Presbyterian  college,  it  was  presided  over 
by  Dr.  McMasters,  brother  of  James  McMasters,  now  editor  of  the  Freeman's 
Journal,  New  York. 

Graduating  from  Hanover  College  in  1841,  he  began  the  study  of  law  with 
Judge  Major,  of  Shelbyville,  but  a  desire  to  visit  the  East  induced  him  to  accept 
the  advantages  of  instruction  in  the  office  and  a  membership  in  the  family  of  his 
uncle,  Judge  Thomson,  in  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania.  He  returned  to  Indiana 
in  1843,  with  only  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  in  his  pocket,  one  week  too  late 
for  the  regular  fall  examinations  for  admission  to  the  bar,  and  was  therefore  put 
to  the  test  of  a  special  examination  by  the  circuit  judges.  He  was  easily  admitted. 
His  early  career  did  not  differ  much  from  a  hundred  other  fledglings  in  a  limited 
sphere,  but  it  was  noted  that  his  diligence,  upright  bearing,  and  suavity  of  man- 
ner, builded  early  the  foundations  of  that  popularity  which  has  been  for  so  many 
years  in  Indiana  his  peculiar  possession. 

Four  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  his  political  career  was  begun  by  his 
election  to  the  legislature,  and  from  that  day  until  this  he  has  been  an  active 
and  conspicuous  figure  in  the  politics  of  his  State.  It  was  in  1848  that  he  was 
elected  to  the  legislature,  then  only  twenty-six  years  of  age,  being  elected  in  a 
close  contest  over  -Captain  Nathan  Early,  the  issue  being  the  party  responsi- 
bility for  the  Mexican  war.  He  served  but  one  term,  but  long  enough  to  impress 
the  fact  upon  the  people  of  the  State  that  "a  young  man  of  great  capacity  and 
promise  "  had  come  upon  the  platform  of  affairs,  and  which  resulted  in  his  being 
chosen  to  the  State  Constitutional  Convention  of  1850,  called  to  revise  and  amend 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  commonwealth  at  a  time  when  Indiana  wanted  in 
council  her  ablest  and  purest  men. 


LIFE   OF  THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS.  81 

In  1851,  the  year  subsequent,  Mr.  Hendricks  was  nominated  for  Congress  in 
the  Indianapolis  district  and  was  elected .  So  acceptably  did  he  serve  his  constit- 
uents that  he  was  renominated  and  re-elected.  In  the  autumn  of  1856,  much 
against  his  inclination,  he  was  nominated  for  a  third  term,  and  was  defeated. 
His  defeat  has  been  erroneously  attributed  to  his  vote  in  favor  of  Douglas's  Ne- 
braska-Kansas bill,  involving  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  was  during  a  period  of  transition,  in  which  occurred  the  disinte- 
gration of  the  Whig  party  and  the  uprising  of  the  Republicans,  when  there  was 
much  political  movement  and  many  theories.  His  opponent,  once  a  Democrat, 
rallied  to  his  support  Free  Soilers,  Abolitio  nists,  Temperance  men,  Know  Noth- 
ings, Whigs  and  everything  else  which  was  not  Democratic  ;  and  in  a  time  of  polit- 
ical revolution  he  was  beaten.  Though  he  returned  at  once  to  the  practice  of  the 
law,  he  was  called  again  to  public  service,  without  solicitation  either  upon  his  part 
or  that  of  his  friends,  by  President  Pierce,  who  appointed  Mr.  Hendricks  Com- 
missioner of  the  General  Land  Office.  He  administered  the  duties  of  this  office 
for  four  years,  earning  a  widespread  national  reputation,  by  reason  of  the  ability 
with  which  he  conducted  the  delicate  and  important  affairs  of  the  office. 

In  1860,  the  Republicans  nominated  Henry  S.  Lane  for  Governor  of  Indiana  ; 
and  the  Democrats,  casting  about  for  their  strongest  name,  chose  that  of  Thomas 
A.  Hendricks.  This  was  another  year  of  political  revolution,  and  when  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  elected  President.  Mr.  Hendricks  was  defeated ;  but  revolution 
followed  upon  revolution,  and  in  1862,  while  Hon.  Oliver  P.  Morton  was  Gov- 
ernor, the  Democrats  obtained  a  majority  in  the  Legislature.  A  United  States 
Senator  was  to  be  chosen,  and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  was  elected.  His  period  of  ser- 
vice, ending  March,  1869,  covered  the  last  two  years  of  the  war  and  the  four  years  of 
reconstruction.  How  nobly  he  stood  for  the  application  of  Jeff ersonian  principles 
in  these  troublous  times,  how  certain  he  was  in  his  strokes  of  battle,  and  what 
influence  for  good  he  then  exerted,  are  matters  now  the  pride  of  Democrats  where- 
ever  they  are.  In  the  resistance  to  the  effort  to  remove  Andrew  Johnson  by  im- 
peachment, Senator  Hendricks  played  an  important  and  able  part. 

At  the  close  of  his  senatorial  term,  Senator  Hendricks  returned  to  Indiana  to 
again  enter  upon  his  practice,  bearing  with  him  an  honorable  name  earned  in  the 
service  of  his  country  and  treasured  by  every  Democrat  in  the  broad  land.  In 
1868,  at  the  Democratic  Convention  in  New  York  City,  his  name  was  presented  as 
a  candidate  with  eighteen  others,  and  he,  with  General  Hancock,  led  all  the  rest, 
the  latter  receiving  on  the  twenty-first  ballot  135%  and  Senator  Hendricks  132. 
On  the  twenty-second  ballot  Ohio  suddenly  presented  the  name  of  Horatio  Seymour, 
with  the  result  of  his  nomination . 

In  1872  the  Democratic  party  entered  into  a  compact  with  the  Liberal-Republican 
party  and  nominated  Horace  Greeley.  Though  Senator  Hendricks  doubted  the 
advisability  of  the  movement,  yet  he  loyally  followed  the  lead  of  his  party,  and  his 
presence  being  demanded  in  the  fore  of  battle  in  his  own  State,  against  his  earnest 
protest  he  was  nominated  for  Governor.  Though  Grant  carried  the  State  on  the 
electoral  ticket,  Hendricks  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  one  thousand  one  hundred 
and  forty-eight  votes. 

Two  years  as  Governor  and  again  Mr.  Hendricks  returned  to  private  life. 
Two  years  later  he  passed  into  the  most  eventful  period  of  his  life.  The  Democratic 
National  Convention  met  at  St.  Louis  the  27th  of  June,  1876.  On  the  first  ballot 
Mr.  Tilden  received  403%  votes  and  Mr.  Hendricks  133%.  On  the  second  ballot 
Mr.  Tilden  received  508  votes,  and  the  first  place  being  disposed  of,  the  thoughts  of 
the  Convention  turned  to  Governor  Hendricks,  and  he  was  nominated  for  Yice- 

6 


82  LIFE   OF   THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS. 

President  by  730  votes  out  of  738.  The  events  which  followed  are  now  a  matter  of 
history.  After  a  stoutly  contested  and  bitter  campaign,  Tilden  and  Hendricks 
were  elected,  having  a  majority  of  the  popular  vote  and  electoral  college.  By  a 
shameless  conspiracy,  engaged  in  by  the  Leaders  of  the  Republican  party,  the 
the  people  of  the  country  were  fraudulently  deprived  of  their  triumph  at  the  polls. 
In  this  trying  period  Governor  Hendricks  bore  himself  with  lofty  patriotism, 
further  increasing  the  regard  felt  for  him. 

Eight  years  rolled  around  and  the  representatives  of  Democracy  in  the  greatest 
convention  ever  assembled,  gathered  together  at  Chicago,  July  8th,  1884.  There 
was  a  general  demand  for  the  old  ticket  of  1876.  But  the  old  chieftain,  Tilden, 
was  incapacitated  by  age  for  the  leadership,  and  the  convention  selected  the  young 
champion  of  reform  in  the  Empire  State — Grover  Cleveland,  as  his  representative, 
and  then,  after  a  scene  of  unparalleled  enthusiasm,  demanded  that  Thomas  A. 
Hendricks  should  a  second  time  be  nominated  for  Vice-President  and  a  second 
time  elected.     True  to  his  patriotic  impulses  he  has  accepted. 

Governor  Hendricks  is  a  man  now  nearly  sixty-five  years  old,  vigorous  and 
strong,  in  whom  there  is  not  an  indication  of  decay  either  mentally  or  physically — 
a  man  of  simple  habits,  with  a  graceful  bearing  and  a  manly,  handsome  face. 
Nature  has  endowed  him  with  the  elements  of  a  true  orator  and  upon  the  forum 
he  is  persuasive  and  winning,  convincing  and  captivating.  His  long  public  career, 
beginning  when  twenty-six  years  of  age,  is  studded  with  the  evidences  of  his  great 
ability,  his  singularly  pure  devotion  to  duty  and  his  lofty  and  unswerving  patriot- 
ism. He  is  a  Democrat  of  the  truest  type  and  an  ideal  representative  of  American 
manhood. 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   THOMAS    A.    HENDRICKS.  83 


Public  Record  of  Thomas  A.  Hendricks, 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks  was  but  twenty-six  years  old  when  he  began  his  public 
career  in  the  Assembly  of  Indiana.  He  was  nominated  for  that  place  by  the 
Democrats  of  that  county.  His  opponent  was  Captain  Nathan  Earlywine,  whom 
he  met  in  joint  debate.  Their  discussion  on  Flat  Rock  is  to-day  a  tradition  of  the 
community.  Earlywine  in  the  debate  charged  the  Democrats  with  bringing  on 
the  Mexican  war,  and  alleged  that  some  time  before  Hendricks,  in  a  private 
conversation,  had  admitted  this,  but  boasted  that  he  intended  to  shift  the 
responsibility  from  the  Democrats  to  the  Whigs.  Hendricks,  who  was  in  the 
audience,  shouted  out,  "You  know  that's  a  lie  !"  For  a  time  it  looked  as  if  the 
meeting  would  have  a  sudden  and  violent  termination,  but  Mr.  Hendricks  took  the 
stump  and  justified  his  declaration.  Hendricks  was  elected.  In  the  Legislature 
he  soon  made  himself  conspicuous  by  his  opposition  to  the  extension  of  the  State 
Bank's  branches  and  by  the  ability  with  which  he  urged  his  opposition. 
Notwithstanding  the  success  he  met  with  in  his  first  venture  in  public  life,  he 
refused  a  renomination  and  returned  to  his  practice. 

Two  years  later  (1850)  by  the  wish  of  all  parties  and  without  opposition,  he  was 
elected  to  the  State  Constitutional  Convention,  to  amend  the  Constitution  of  1816. 
Robert  Dale  Owen,  Judges  Pettit  and  Biddle,  W.  S.  Holman,  and  Schuyler  Colfax 
had  seats  in  the  same  Convention.  Mr.  Hendricks,  who  was  on  the  Banking  and 
Judiciary  Committees,  won  such  a  reputation  in  the  debates  upon  the  important 
questions  arising,  that  without  effort  upon  his  part,  he  became  a  leading  candidate 
for  the  nomination  for  Congress  in  his  district.  There  were  many  other  candidates 
for  the  nomination,  but  upon  the  fifty-third  ballot,  Mr.  Hendricks  was  nominated, 
and  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  more  than  three  thousand. 

The  first  term  in  Congress  is  rarely  an  eventful  one  to  a  new  member,  yet  he 

satisfied  his  constituents,  and  they  returned  him  by  an  increased  majority.    During 

his  second  term  Douglass'  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  was  presented,  and  the  discussion 

over  it  greatly  excited  the  country.      Mr.  Hendricks  voted  with  the  bulk  of  his 

party.     It  has  been  urged  that  this  vote  defeated  him  for  a  third  term  in  Congress, 

but  it  is  certain  that  in  thus  casting  his  vote,  he  was  in  entire  accord  with  the 

sentiment  of  his  constituents.     The  fact  is  that  it  was  a  time  of  political  revolution, 

and  Lucien  Barbour,  his  opponent,  who  had  been  a  Democrat,  was  supported  by 

all  the  elements  which  opposed  the  Democratic  party,  Free  Soilers,  Abolitionists, 

Temperance  men,  Know  Nothings,  Whigs,  and  what  not.     It  was  a  time  of  the 

Know  Nothing  craze.    During  this  campaign  Mr.  Hendricks  made  a  speech,  which, 

while  an  honor  to  his  convictions  and  his  democracy,   in  that  time  of  senseless 

opposition  to  naturalized  citizens,  contributed  somewhat  to  his  defeat.      This  is 

what  he  said  on  that  occasion  : 

"When  the  Democratic  administration  of  Jefferson  came  in,  liberal  laws  were 
enacted,  and  our  young  Republican  said  to  the  oppressed  millions  of  Europe : 


84  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF  THOMAS    A.    HENDRICKS. 

'  Come,  and  cheap  lands  shall  furnish  you  a  home;  come,  and  the  flag  of  the  free 
shall  wave  over  and  protect  you;  come,  and  just  laws  shall  make  you  free.'  They 
did  come,  and  with  them  came  the  scholar,  the  artist,  the  farmer,  the  mechanic 
and  the  laborer,  and  they  brought  no  trouble  upon  our  fathers  but  much  strength, 
and  contributed  largely  to  the  development  of  the  country.  Our  fathers  were 
then  only  five  millions  strong,  but  they  were  not  afraid  for  their  liberties  or  for 
their  Protestant  religion  in  the  adoption  of  that  policy.  Since  that  day  half  a  cen- 
tury has  gone  by,  and  our  last  census  shows  us  to  be  a  people  of  twenty-three 
millions,  with  a  native-born  white  population '  of  seventeen  millions  and  three- 
quarters,  and  a  population  of  foreign  birth  of  only  two  millions  and  one-quarter. 
Our  foreign  population,  animated  by  a  common  sentiment  of  admiration  for  our 
institutions,  have  abandoned  the  lands  of  their  birth,  and  with  their  wives  and 
children  have  settled  done  among  us,  making  our  fortunes  their  fortunes,  our 
hopes  their  hopes,  and  our  destiny  their  destiny.  When  have  they  refused  to  dis- 
charge any  duty  required  by  Government  ?  Do  they  not  promptly  pay  their 
taxes,  diligently  labor  upon  the  highways,  faithfully  serve  in  our  armies,  and 
valiantly  fight  in  defense  of  our  country  ?  It  is  not  true  that  our  liberties  or  our 
religion  are  endangered  by  the  presence  of  our  foreign  population.  Our  fathers 
intended  to  secure  the  liberties  of  the  citizen,  that  the  Church  and  State  should  be 
separate,  and  that  the  Church  should  not  control  the  State,  nor  the  State  corrupt 
the  Church.  No  test  can  be  made  by  law,  whereby  one  class  of  men  shall  be 
promoted  to  office  and  another  class  deprived  of  office  because  of  their  religion. 
The  Constitution  prohibits  it  for  the  reason  that  such  a  thing  ought  not  to  be 
done." 

Defeated  Mr.  Hendricks  contentedly  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law,  but  only 
for  a  few  months,  for  President  Pierce,  without  solicitation  upon  the  part  of  him- 
self or  anyone  else,  tendered  him  the  distinguished  office  of  Commissioner  of  the 
General  Land  Office.  He  accepted,  not  without  hesitation,  and  principally jm  view 
of  the  fact  that  it  would  promote  his  knowledge  of  land  law. 

Mr.  Hendricks  continued  in  this  office  at  the  request  of  the  succeeding  secre- 
tary, Jacob  Thompson,  of  President  Buchanan's  administration,  and  remained 
commissioner  until  1859,  when  he  resigned  to  resume  his  law  practice.  He  had 
brought  to  the  place  vast  aptitude  for  the  discharge  of  its  duties,  and  the  business 
and  organizing  faculty  which  its  proper  administration  required.  During  his  term 
and  his  superintendency  of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty  clerks  employed,  twenty- 
two  thousand  contested  cases  were  settled,  and  over  four  hundred  thousand  patents 
issued.  The  exercise  of  his  functions  was  distinguished  by  careful  surveys,  early 
examinations  and  prompt  decision  of  titles,  ready  aid  to  settlers,  a  recognition  of 
the  value  to  the  remaining  governmental  domain  of  improvements  upon  pre-empted 
sections,  and  the  assurance  to  owners  under  Federal  grants  of  certain  and  unim- 
peachable rights.  In  his  general  view  at  that  early  day,  and  before  the  subject  had 
become  one  of  such  vital  apprehension  as  it  is  now,  he  regarded  with  most  favor 
the  claims  of  small  settlers,  and  he  guarded  with  jealous  care  against  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  public  domain — the  people's  inheritance— by  grasping  monopolies,  reck- 
less speculators,  greedy  corporations,  and  alien  land-owners. 

His  decisions  were  rarely  overruled,  and  his  services  to  the  sections  of  the  coun- 
try opened  up  in  the  days  of  his  administration  have  been  cherished  in  grateful 
memory  by  the  people  who  were  benefited.  On  July  5th,  1865,  Senator  Hendricks, 
visiting  St.  Paul,  was  tendered  a  banquet  by  the  Common  Council  and  citizens  of 
that  place  •'  in  recognition  of  his  good  offices  toward  Minnesota  as  Commissioner 
of  the  General  Land  Office  and  as  United  States  Senator."  In  making  a  journey  to 
San  Francisco  in  1869,  passing  through  Omaha,  he  was  received  with  a  great  pop- 
ular ovation,  and  five  thousand  people  gathered  in  the  evening  to  honor  him  and 
to  listen  to  an  oration  on  the  state  of  the  country,  in  the  course  of  which  he  applied 
himself  largely  to  the  proper  disposal  of  our  public  lands,  and  maintained,  as  he 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   THOMAS    A.    HENDRICKS.  85 

had  always  held  in  official  position,  that  every  advantage  in  the  disposition  of  them 
should  be  given  to  the  private  settler. 

In  1860,  the  democracy  of  Indiana  insisted  that  Mr.  Hendricks  should  become 
the  nominee  of  the  Democratic  party  for  Governor.  Though  he  clearly  saw  that 
the  events  of  the  day  and  time  preshadowed  defeat,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  take  the 
lead  of  the  party.  He  was  defeated  by  Henry  S.  Lane.  The  bursting  of  the  war 
cloud,  which  had  been  gathered  summoned  Mr.  Hendricks  to  the  work  in  hand 
and  he  took  a  clean  and  unswerving  stand  in  support  of  the  Union.  The  democracy 
of  Indiana  met  in  convention  January  8,  1861,  Mr.  Hendricks,  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions,  reported  that  ' '  it  was  the  highest  aim  and  the  most 
imperative  duty  of  patriotism  and  philanthropy  to  preserve  the  Union  of  the  States 
in  its  integrity  and  maintain  the  Federal  compact  in  its  spirit." 

Notwithstanding  his  clear  and  outspoken  position,  he  was  made  the  subject  of 
bitter  misrepresentations,  to  some  of  which  he  made  reply  in  the  following  letter  : 

Governor  Hendricks'  Views  on  the  Reb  3llion. 

A  letter  to  the  Indianapolis  Journal,  Thursday,  April  25t7i,  1861. 

"Indianapolis,  April  24th. 

"  Mr.  Editor — My  attention  has  been  called  to  an  editorial  in  the  Journal  this 
morning,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  at  a  Union  meeting  held  at  Shelbyville  a  few 
evenings  since  a  committee  was  appointed  to  wait  upon  me,  with  the  request  that 
I  should  speak  ;  that,  being  called  upon  by  the  committee,  I  refused  to  speak, 
saying  that  I  had  no  hand  in  originating  the  difficulty,  and  would  have  nothing  to 
do  in  extricating  the  country  from  its  perilous  condition. 

"  The  writer  has  been  wholly  misinformed.  I  never  heard  of  the  appointment 
of  such  a  committee,  and  suppose  none  was  appointed.  No  committee  waited  upon 
me  with  such  a  request.  Had  I  been  so  honored,  I  certainly  would  have  re- 
sponded. I  have  never  withheld  my  views  upon  any  question  of  public  interest 
from  the  people  of  Shelby  County.  Upon  all  occasions,  when  it  appeared  proper, 
I  have  expressed  my  opinions  in  relation  to  our  present  troubles.  Since  the  war 
commenced  I  have  uniformly  said  that  the  authority  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  is  not  questioned  in  Indiana,  and  that  I  regarded  it  as  the  duty  of 
the  citizens  of  Indiana  to  respect  and  maintain  that  authority,  and  to  give  the  Gov- 
ernment an  honest  and  earnest  support  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  until,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  it  may  be  brought  to  an  honorable  conclusion,  and  the  blessings 
of  peace  restored  to  our  country,  postponing  until  that  time  all  controversy  in  rela- 
tion to  the  causes  and  responsibilities  of  the  war.  No  man  will  feel  a  deeper 
solicitude  in  the  welfare  and  proud  bearing  of  Indiana's  soldiery  in  the  conflict  of 
arms  to  which  they  are  called  than  myself. 

Allow  me  to  add  that  in  my  judgment  a  citizen  or  newspaper  is  not  serving  the 
country  well  in  the  present  crisis  by  attempting  to  give  a  partisan  aspect  to  the 
war,  or  by  seeking  to  pervert  the  cause  of  the  country  to  party  ends. 

Respectfully, 

THOMAS  A.  HENDRICKS. 

In  June,  1863,  upon  the  exciting  popular  question  of  the  enrollment  and  the 
draft,  Hendricks  made  a  speech  to  the  people  of  Rushville,  Rush  County,  Indiana, 
in  which  he  urged  the  necessity  of  obedience  to  the  act  and  to  all  Constitutional 
enactments,  both  as  a  matter  of  duty  upon  the  part  of  the  citizens,  and  as  the  best 
means  of  preserving  peace  and  order.  In  the  course  of  this  address  he  said  : 
' '  Respect  for  legitimate  authority  and  obedience  to  law  has  long  been  the  cherished 
sentiment  of  the  political  party  to  which  it  is  my  pride  to  belong.  The  dangerous 
doctrine  that  the  conscience  of  the  citizen  may  sit  in  judgment  upon  laws  enacted  in 
proper  form,  with  a  view  to  their  resistance,  has  never  been  adopted  by  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  people  of  this  State,  and  has  at  all  times  been  bitterly  opposed  by  the 


86  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS. 

Democracy."  A  better  exposition  of  the  genius  of  Democracy  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find. 

In  the  election  of  1862  the  Democrats  obtained  a  majority  of  the  Legislature  on 
joint  ballot.  Early  in  1863  Mr.  Hendricks  was  elected  United  States  senator,  and 
the  4th  of  March  of  that  year  he  took  his  seat.  His  reputation  and  his  eminent 
public  services  in  past  years  gave  him  a  high  place  in  the  Senate  at  once,  and  he 
served  with  distinction  and  industry  on  the  committees  of  claims,  public  buildings, 
judiciary,  public  lands  and  naval  affairs. 

Senator  Hendricks  shared  Mr.  Lincoln's  confidence  and  friendship.  In  March, 
1865.  just  before  the  assassination,  Mr.  Hendricks  called  at  the  White  House  to 
bid  the  President  good-bye.     To  him,  Lincoln  said  : 

"  I  know,  Hendricks,  that  you  are  a  Democrat ;  but  you  have  treated  my  Ad- 
ministration fairly,  and  I  think  it  is  due  you  now  to  say  to  you  that  things  will 
shortly  assume  a  shape  across  the  river  [turning  and  pointing  to  the  Potomac] 
when  I  can  have  a  general  jubilee." 

During  the  discussions  of  the  reconstruction  era,  Senator  Hendricks  held 
closely  to  the  theory,  that  the  existence  of  a  State  which  had  been  in  rebellion 
"its  organization  as  a  State,  its  Constitution,  which  was  the  bond  of  its  organiza- 
tion, continued  all  the  way  through  the  war  ;  and  when  peace  came,  it  found  the 
State,  with  its  Constitution  and  laws  unrepealed"  and  in  full  force,  holding  that 
State  to  the  Federal  Union,  except  all  laws  enacted  in  aid  of  the  Rebellion." 

In  further  support  of  his  position,  Mr.  Hendricks  said  : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  most  express  terms,  in  most  emphatic  language,  in  language 
at  the  time  somewhat  offensive  to  some  members  of  his  own  party,  held  the  same 
doctrine  ;  and  I  call  the  attention  of  Senators  to  the  proclamation  to  which  I  refer. 
In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  8th  of  December,  1868,  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, first,  of  general  amnesty  to  those  who  would  take  a  prescribed  oath,  and  then 
assuring  them  that  if  the  people  of  these  States  would  recognize  State  Governments 
loyal  in  their  character  the  Executive  would  respect  and,  under  this  clause  of  the 
Constitution,  would  guarantee  those  Governments.  Here  is  his  language— not 
calling  upon  Congress  as  the  source  of  power  for  the  action  of  the  people,  but 
appealing  directly  to  the  people  independently  of  Congress.  He  says  that  if  they 
will  reorganize  their  State  Governments  such  shall  be  recognized  as  the  true 
Government  of  the  State,  and  the  State  shall  receive  thereunder  the  benefits  of  the 
Constitutional  provision  which  declares  that  '  the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to 
every  State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,' "  etc. 

During  the  impeachment  trial  of  Andrew  Johnson,  Benjamin  Wade,  then 
Acting  Vice-President  took  his  seat  as  one  of  the  triers  in  the  case.  Senator 
Hendricks  challenged  him  and  forcibly  stated  the  objections  that  "  no  man  should 
help  to  take  from  the  President  his  office  when  that  man  is  to  fill  the  office  if  the 
proceeding  succeed."  Mr.  Sumner  characterized  the  question  raised  as  one  "of 
much  novelty,"  but  the  parliamentary  phases  of  it  occupied  two  days  in  discussion. 

In  1868,  Mr.  Hendricks'  position  as  a  leader  of  the  National  Democracy  was 
so  undisputed  that  he  was  a  leading  candidate  for  the  nomination  for  President  at 
the  New  York  National  Democratic  Convention,  closely  contesting  the  palm  with 
General  Hancock  from  the  twenty-first  ballot,  when  the  General  received  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  and  a  half  votes.  Mr.  Hendricks  received  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two.  But  in  this  ballot  the  break  was  made  for  Horatio  Seymour,  who  was 
nominated. 

Much  against  his  inclination  in  that  campaign  Mr.  Hendricks  was  nominated 
for  Governor  in  Indiana  and  was  defeated  again.  In  1872,  however,  though  he 
had  doubted  the  advisability  of  the  nomination  of  Horace  Greeley  by  the 
Democracy,  he  was  again  chosen  to  bear  the  standard  of  Democracy  in  Indiana, 
and  this  time  was  elected. 


PUBLIC   RECORD   OF  THOMAS    A.    HENDRICKS.  87 

During  his  term  of  Governor  the  Legislature  adjourned  without  completing 
its  business.  Governor  Hendricks  brought  it  back  straightway.  His  admonition 
that  the  neglected  measures  required  little  time,  and  that  the  members  not  yet 
having  left  the  capital  had  not  .earned  mileage,  brought  about  a  prompt  dispatch 
of  the  business  and  prevented  an  unnecessary  prolongation  of  the  extra  session. 

During  the  same  term,  December  29,  1874,  at  the  opening  exercises  of  the 
State  Teachers'  Association,  he  delivered  an  address  full  of  thoughtful  concern  for 
the  educational  interests  of  the  State,  which  always  had  his  earnest  attention. 

Under  his  administration  the  debt  of  the  State,  which  is  now  no  considerable 
amount,  was  largely  taken  up,  the  credit  of  the  Commonwealth  sustained  and 
enhanced,  and  its  material  affairs  prospered.  It  was  during  this  period  that  the 
financial  issue  threatened  to  divide  the  Democracy.  As  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
misrepresentation  which  Mr.  Hendricks'  attitude  toward  this  question  has  been 
subject  to,  there  is  appended  here  an  extract  from  his  speech  in  the  Convention  of 
1878.  From  these  sentiments  he  never  departed,  through  the  Indiana  platforms 
in  some  degree  had  transcended  his  views  and  also  that  of  the  Ohio  Democracy, 
in  the  campaign  when  he  went  over  to  help  them,  but  he  invariably  steered  his 
course  consistently  with  these  sentiments  : 

''We  desire  a  return  to  specie  payments.  It  is  a  serious  evil  when  there  are 
commercial  mediums  of  diffent  values  ;  when  one  description  of  our  money  is  for 
one  class  and  purpose,  and  another  for  a  different  class  and  purpose.  We  cannot 
too  strongly  express  the  importance  of  the  policy  that  shall  restore  uniformity  of 
value  to  all  the  money  of  the  country,  so  that  it  shall  be  always  and  readily  con- 
vertible. That  gold  and  silver  are  the  real  standard  of  value  is  a  cherished  Demo- 
cratic sentiment  not  now  or  hereafter  to  be  abandoned.  But  I  do  not  look  to  any 
arbitrary  enactment  of  Congress  for  a  restoration  of  specie  payments.  Such  an 
effort  now  would  probably  produce  widespread  commercial  disaster.  A  Congres- 
sional declaration  cannot  make  the  paper  currency  equal  to  gold  in  value.  It 
cannot  make  a  bank  note  equal  to  your  dollar.  The  business  of  the  country  alone 
can  do  that.  When  we  find  the  coin  of  the  country  increasing,  then  we  may 
know  that  we  are  moving  in  the  direction  of  specie  payments.  The  important  finan- 
cial question  is,  How  can  we  increase  and  make  permanent  our  supply  of  gold  ? 
The  reliable  solution  is,  by  increasing  our  productions  and  thereby  reducing  our 
purchases,  and  increasing  our  sales  abroad.  He  can  readily  obtain  money  who 
produces  more  than  he  consumes  of  articles  that  are  wanted  in  the  market,  and  I 
suppose  that  is  also  true  of  communities  and  nations." 

In  1876  a  great  wave  of  reform  swept  over  the  country,  and  conspicuous 
among  those  who  had  led  the  van  in  the  aggressive  march  and  battle  against  cor- 
rupt methods  in  the  administration  of  affairs  were  Governors  Tilden  (of  Xew 
York)  and  Hendricks  (of  Indiana).  The  Democratic  National  Convention  assem- 
bled at  St.  Louis  on  the  27th  day  of  June  of  that  year.  But  two  candidates  were 
really  before  the  convention,  Tilden  and  Hendricks.  The  first  ballot  determined 
the  result,  and  Governor  Tilden  was  nominated.  After  that  the  demand  was 
almost  unanimous  for  Hendricks  for  Vice-President,  and  out  of  738  votes  he 
received  730.  He  accepted,  and  in  his  lettter  of  acceptance  used  these  noble 
words  : 

"  The  institutions  of  our  country  have  been  sorely  tried  by  the  exigencies  of 
civil  war,  and  since  the  peace  by  a  selfish  and  corrupt  management  of  public 
affairs  which  have  shamed  us  before  civilized  mankind.  By  unwise  and  partial 
legislation,  every  industry  and  interest  of  the  people  have  been  made  to  suffer  ;  and 
in  the  executive  departments  of  the  government  dishonesty,  rapacity,  and  venal ty 
have  debauched  the  public  service.  Men  known  to  be  unworthy  have  been  pro- 
moted, while  others  have  been  degraded  for  fidelity  to  official  duty.  Public  office 
has  been  made  the  means  of  private  profit,  and  the  country  has  been  offended  to 
see  a  class  of  men  who  boast  the  friendship  of  the  sworn  protectors  of  the  State 
amassing  fortunes  by  defrauding  the  public   treasury  and  by  corrupting  the  ser- 


88  PUBLIC   RECORD   OF   THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS. 

vants  of  the  people.  In  such  a  crisis  of  the  history  of  the  country,  I  rejoice  that 
the  contention  at  St.  Louis  has  so  nobly  raised  the  standard  of  reform.  Nothing 
can  be  well  with  us  or  with  our  affairs  until  the  public  conscience,  shocked  by  the 
enormous  evils  and  abuses  which  prevail,  shall  have  demanded  and  compelled  an 
unsparing  reformation  of  our  national  Administration,  '  in  its  head  and  in  its  mem- 
bers.' In  such  a  reformation  the  removal  of  a  single  officer,  even  the  President, 
is  comparatively  a  trifling  matter,  if  the  system  which  he  represents,  and  which 
has  fostered  him  as  he  has  fostered  it,  is  suffered  to  remain.  The  President  alone 
must  not  be  made  the  scape-goat  for  the  enormities  of  the  system  which  infects 
the  public  service  and  threatens  the  destruction  of  our  institutions.  In  some 
respects  I  hold  that  the  present  Executive  has  been  the  victim  rather  than  the 
author  of  that  vicious  system.  Congressional  and  party  leaders  have  been  stronger 
than  the  President.  No  one  man  could  have  created  it,  and  the  removal  of  no 
one  man  can  amend  it.  It  is  thoroughly  corrupt,  and  must  be  swept  remorselessly 
away  by  the  selection  of  a  government  composed  of  elements  entirely  new  and 
pledged  to  radical  reform." 

"With  the  industries  of  the  people  there  have  been  frequent  interferences. 
Our  platform  truly  says  that  many  industries  have  been  impoverished  to  subsidize  a 
few.  Our  commerce  has  been  degraded  to  an  inferior  position  on  the  high  seas  ; 
manufactures  have  been  diminished  ;  agriculture  has  been  embarrassed  ;  and  the 
distress  of  the  industrial  classes  demands  that  these  things  shall  be  reformed. 

' '  The  burdens  of  the  people  must  also  be  lightened  by  a  great  change  in  our  sys- 
tem of  public  expepses.  The  profligate  expenditure  which  increased  taxation 
from  five  dollars  per  capita  in  1860  to  eighteen  dollars  in  1870,  tells  its  own  story  of 
our  need  of  fiscal  reform. 

' '  Our  treaties  with  foreign  powers  should  also  be  revised  and  amended,  in  so  far 
as  they  leave  citizens  of  foreign  birth  in  any  particular  less  secure  in  any  country 
on  earth  than  they  would  be  if  they  had  been  born  upon  our  own  soil ;  and  the 
iniquitous  coolie  system,  which,  through  the  agency  of  wealthy  companies,  imports 
Chinese  bondmen,  and  establishes  a  species  of  slavery,  and  interferes  with  the  just 
rewards  of  labor  on  our  Pacific  coast,  should  be  utterly  abolished. 

"  In  the  reform  of  our  civil  service,  I  most  heartily  indorse  that  section  of  the 
platform  which  declares  that  the  civil  service  ought  not  to  be  '  subject  to  change 
at  every  election,' and  that  it  ought  not  to  be  made  'the  brief  reward  of  party 
zeal.'  but,  ought  to  be  awarded  for  proved  competency,  and  held  for  fidelity  in  the 
public  employ.  I  hope  never  again  to  see  the  cruel  and  remorseless  proscription 
for  political  opinions  which  has  disgraced  the  administration  of  the  last  eight 
years.  Bad  as  the  civil  service  now  is,  as  all  know,  it  has  some  men  of  tried 
integrity  and  proved  ability.  Such  men.  and  such  men  only,  should  be  retained 
in  office  ;  but  no  man  should  be  retained,  on  any  consideration,  who  has  prosti- 
tuted his  office  to  the  purposes  of  partisan  intimidation  of  compulsion,  or  who  has 
furnished  money  to  corrupt  the  elections.  This  is  done,  and  has  been  done,  in 
almost  every  county  of  the  land.  It  is  a  blight  upon  the  morals  of  the  country, 
and  ought  to  be  reformed. 

"  Of  sectional  contentions  and  in  respect  to  our  common  schools  I  have  only 
this  to  say  :  That  in  my  judgment,  the  man  or  party  that  would  involve  our 
schools  in  political  or  sectarian  controversy  is  an  enemy  to  the  schools.  The  com- 
mon schools  are  safer  under  the  protecting  care  of  all  the  people  than  under  the 
control  of  any  party  or  sect.  They  must  be  neither  sectarian  nor  partisan,  and 
there  must  be  neither  division  nor  misappropriation  of  the  funds  for  their  support. 
Likewise  I  regard  the  man  who  would  arouse  or  foster  sectional  animosities  and 
antagonisms  among  his  countrymen  as  a  dangerous  enemy  to  his  country.  All  the 
people  must  be  made  to  feel  and  know  that  once  more  there  is  established  a  purpose 
and  policy  under  which  all  citizens  of  every  condition,  race  and  color  will  be 
secure  in  the  enjoyment  of  whatever  rights  the  Constitution  and  laws  declare  or 
recognize  ;  and  that  in  controversies  that  may  arise  the  Government  is  not  a 
partisan,  but  within  its  constitutional  authority  the  just  and  powerful  guardian  of 
the  rights  and  safety  of  all.  The  strife  between  the  sections  and  between  races 
will  cease  as  soon  as  the  power  for  evil  is  taken  "away  from  a  party  that  makes 
political  gain  out  of  scenes  of  violence  and  bloodshed,  and  the  constitutional 
authority  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  men  whose  political  welfare  requires  that  peace 
and  good  order  shall  be  preserved  everywhere." 


PUBLIC   RECORD    OF   THOMAS   A.    HENDRICKS.  89 

How  these  gentlemen  were  elected  in  the  November  of  that  year,  and  how  they 
were  defrauded  by  a  shameless  conspiracy  upon  the  part  of  the  Republican  leaders 
and  the  majority  of  the  American  voters  robbed  of  their  choice  for  president  and 
vice-president  is  familiar  to  all. 

Eight  years  have  passed  and  again  Governor  Hendricks  is  called  to  bear  his 
part  in  the  campaign,  the  great  issue  of  which  is  whether  honesty  or  dishonesty 
shall  prevail  in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  government,  and  Mr.  Hendricks 
bears  aloft  the  banner  upon  which  is  inscribed  the  word  honesty. 


90  RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 


Record  of  Blaine. 


For  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States  the  Republican  party  has  placed 
in  nomination  James  G.  Blaine,  ,£a  candidate,"  declared  by  a  convention  of  Re- 
publicans to  be  "an  unfit  leader,  shown  by  his  own  words  and  his  acknowledged 
acts,  which  are  of  official  record,  to  be  unworthy  of  respect  and  confidence  ;  who 
has  traded  upon  his  official  trust  for  his  pecuniary  gain  ;  a  representative  of  men, 
methods  and  conduct  which  the  public  conscience  condemns,  and  which  illustrate 
the  very  evils  honest  men  would  reform." 

These  grave  charges,  deliberately  made  against  the  Republican  candidate  for 
President  by  Republicans,  deserve  the  serious  consideration  of  all  men  who  have 
the  welfare  of  the  country  at  heart ;  and  to  the  end  that  an  impartial  investigation 
of  Mr.  Blaine's  fitness  or  unfitness  for  the  high  trust  to  which  he  aspires  may  be 
had,  a  brief  review  is  here  given  of  Mr.  Blaine's  public  life  in  Washington. 

Is  He  Honest? 

The  first  requisite  for  a  candidate  for  office,  according  to  the  Jeffersonian 
standard,  is  honesty.  Against  Mr.  Blaine  the  charge  specifically  made,  and  by 
Republicans,  is,  that  he  has  traded  upon  his  official  trust  for  his  pecuniary  gain. 
The  proof  is  of  record,  and  was  furnished  by  Mr.  Blaine  himself  in  what  are 
known  as  the  Mulligan  letters. 

The  Mulligan  Letters. 

The  story  of  the  Mulligan  letters  is  briefly  told.  They  were  letters  written  by 
Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Fisher  concerning  land  grant  railroad  stocks  and  bonds,  and 
they  were  held,  with  Fisher's  consent,  by  his  bookkeeper,  James  Mulligan.  In  the 
spring  of  1876  unpleasant  rumors  of  Mr.  Blaine's  connection  with  certain  railroad 
transactions  were  in  circulation,  and  became  at  last  so  pressing  that  he  thought  it 
necessary  to  meet  them  by  a  personal  explanation  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

He  made  this  explanation  April  24.  He  stated  in  explicit  terms  that  a  charge 
against  him  had  been  made  to  this  effect  :  "  that  a  certain  draft  was  negotiated  at 
the  house  of  Morton,  Bliss  &  Co.,  in  1871,  through  Thomas  A.  Scott,  then  Presi- 
dent of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  for  the  sum  of  $64,000,  and  that 
$75,000  of  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  Company  were 
pledged  as  collateral ;  that  the  Union  Pacific  Company  paid  the  draft  and  took  up 
the  collateral ;  that  the  cash  proceeds  of  it  went  to  me,  and  that  I  had  furnished  or 
sold  or  in  some  way  conveyed  or  transferred  to  Thomas  A.  Scott  these  Little  Rock 
and  Fort  Smith  bonds  which  had  been  used  as  collateral ;  that  the  bonds  had  in 
reality  belonged  to  me  or  some  friend  or  constituent  of  mine  for  whom  I  was  act- 
ing." Mr.  Blaine  then  proceeded  to  deny  this  charge  absolutely  and  entirely, 
declaring  it  to  be  "  without  one  particle  of  foundation  in  fact,  and  without  a  tittle 
of  evidence  to  substantiate  it.*  In  support  of  his  denial  he  read  letters  from 
Thomas  A.  Scott  and  from  Sidney  Dillon,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Scott  as  President  of 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 


91 


the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  He  admitted,  however,  that  he  had  been  the  owner 
of  bonds  in  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  road  in  1869,  but  declared  that  he  had 
paid  the  full  market  price  for  them,  and  that  he  had  lost  over  $20,000  by  the  trans- 
action. He  said  further  that  "  as  to  the  question  of  the  propriety  involved  in  a 
member  of  Congress  holding  an  investment  of  this  kind,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  lands  were  granted  to  the  State  of  Arkansas  and  not  to  the  railroad  com- 
pany, and  that  the  company  derived  its  life,  franchise,  and  value  wholly  from  the 
State."  And  later  he  repeated  that  "the  Little  Rock  road  derived  all  it  had  from 
the  State  of  Arkansas  and  not  from  the  Congress."  He  denied  once  more  the 
charge  against  him  by  declaring  that  "  the  story  of  my  receiving  $04,000  or  any 
other  sum  of  money,  or  other  thing  of  value,  from  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  directly  or  indirectly,  or  in  any  form,  for  myself  or  for  another,  is 
absolutely  disproved  by  the  most  conclusive  testimony  "  ;  and  closed  by  saying, 
"  I  have  never  done  anything  in  my  public  career  for  which  I  could  be  put  to  the 
faintest  blush  in  any  presence,  or  for  which  I  cannot  answer  to  my  constituents, 
my  conscience,  and  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts." 

April  24,  1876,  Cong.  Record,  1st  Sess.,  44th  Cong.,  Vol.   4,   pt.   3, 
p.  2724. 

Investigating  the  Matter. 

On  May  2,  1876,  Mr.  Tarbox  introduced  the  following  resolution  which  was 
agreed  to  : 

Whereas,  It  is  publicly  alleged,  and  not  denied  by  the  officers  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  that  that  corporation  did  in  the  year  1871  or  1872 
become  the  owner  of  certain  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad 
Company,  for  which  bonds  the  said  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  paid  a  con- 
sideration largely  in  excess  of  their  actual  or  market  value,  and  that  the  board  of 
directors  of  said  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  though  urged,  have  neglected 
to  investigate  said  transaction  ;     therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Judiciary  be  instructed  to  inquire  if  any  such 
transaction  took  place,  and,  if  so,  what  were  the  circumstances  and  inducements 
thereto,  from  what  person  or  persons  said  bonds  were  obtained  and  upon  what 
consideration,  and  whether  the  transaction  was  from  corrupt  design  or  in  further- 
ance of  any  corrupt  object ;  and  that  the  Committee  have  power  to  send  for 
persons  and  papers. 

44th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  H.  R.  misc.  doc.  176,  pt,  1,  p.  2. 

Blaine  Makes  a  Fersonal  Explanation. 

Messrs.  Hunt  on,  Ashe  and  Lawrence  wTere  appointed  a  sub-committee  of  the 
Committee  on  Judiciary  to  conduct  the  investigation  called  for  by  this  resolution 
and  one  previously  adopted  directing  an  inquiry  into  the  management  of  all  the 
railroads  that  had  been  aided  by  Congress,  during  the  progress  of  which  Mr. 
Blaine  rose  to  a  personal  explanation,  June  5,  1876,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
read  the  following  letters : 

I. 
[Private  and  personal.] 

Augusta,  Maine,  August  31,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  have  been  absent  so  much  of  late  that  I  did  not 
receive  your  last  letter  until  it  was  several  days  old.  When  I  last  wrote  you,  I 
was  expecting  to  be  in  Boston  on  a  political  conference  about  this  time,  but  I 
found  it  impossible  to  be  there,  and  it  is  now  impossible  for  me  to  leave  here  until 
after  our  election,  which  occurs  Monday  week,  the  9th.  I  will  try  to  meet  you  at 
the  Parker  House  on  the  10th  or  11th,  availing  myself  of  the  first  possible  moment 
for  that  purpose. 


92  RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 

I  cannot,  however,  allow  a  remark  in  your  letter  to  pass  without  comment. 
You  say  that  you  have  been  trying  to  get  a  settlement  with  me  for  fifteen  months, 
you  have  been  trying  to  induce  me  to  comply  with  certain  demands  which 
you  made  upon  me,  without  taking  into  account  any  claims  I  have  of  a  counter 
kind. 

This  does  not  fill  my  idea  of  a  settlement,  for  a  settlement  must  include  both 
sides. 

No  person  could  be  more  anxious  for  a  settlement  than  I  am,  and  if  upon  our 
next  interview  we  cannot  reach  one,  why  then  we  try  other  means. 

But  my  judgment  is  that  I  shall  make  you  so  liberal  an  offer  of  settlement  that 
you  cannot  possibly  refuse  it. 

As  one  of  the  elements  which  I  wish  to  take  into  account  is  the  note  of 
$10,000  given  you  in  1863  for  Spencer  stock,  I  desire  that  you  will  furnish  me  with 
the  items  of  interest  on  that  note.  My  impression  is  that  when  that  note  was  con- 
solidated into  the  large  note,  which  you  still  hold,  that  you  did  not  charge  me  full 
interest,  possibly  omitting  one  or  two  years. 

I  will  be  obliged  if  you  will  give  me  information  on  this  point,  for  I  intend  to 
submit  to  you  a  full  and  explicit  basis  of  settlement,  and  in  making  it  up  it  is 
necessary  that  I  should  have  this  information.  Please  send  it  as  promptly  as  you 
may  be  able  to  give  it  to  me. 

In  haste,  very  truly  yours, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq. 

II. 

[Personal.] 

Augusta,  Maine,  August  9,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  On  my  return  home  yesterday  I  found  your  favor  ot 
6th  from  Stonington,  asking  for  my  notes,  $6,000,  on  account.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  partial  settlement  of  our  matter  would  only  lead  to  future  trouble,  or  at  all 
events  to  a  mere  postponement  of  our  present  difficulties. 

I  deem  it  highly  desirable  that  we  should  have  a  conclusive  and  comprehensive 
settlement,  and  I  have  been  eager  for  that  these  many  months. 

The  account  which  you  stated  June  20,  1872,  does  not  correspond  precisely 
with  the  reckoning  I  have  made  of  the  indebtedness  on  the  note  you  hold.  You 
credit  me,  April  26,  1869,  with  $12,500  dividend  from  Spencer  Company ;  but 
there  were  two  subsequent  dividends,  one  of  $3,750,  the  other  of  $5,800,  of  which 
no  mention  is  made  in  your  statement,  though  I  received  in  June,  1870,  your 
check  for  $2,700  or  $2,800,  which  was  a  part  of  these  dividends,  I  believe.  I  think 
my  "cash  memorandum"  of  June  25,  1869,  for  $2,500,  with  which  you  charge 
me,  represented  at  the  time  a  part  of  the  dividends ;  but  being  debited  with  that, 
I  am  entitled  to  a  credit  of  the  dividend. 

In  other  words,  as  I  reckon  it,  there  are  dividends  amounting  to  $9,550  due  me, 
with  interest  since  June,  1870,  of  which  I  have  received  only  $2,700  or  $2,800, 
entitling  me  thus  to  a  credit  of  some  $7,500. 

Besides  the  cash  memorandum  January  9,  1864,  $600,  which  with  interest 
amounts  to  $904.10,  was  obviously  included  in  the  consolidated  note  which  was 
given  to  represent  all  my  indebtedness  to  you,  and  which  you  repeatedly  assured 
me  would  be  met  and  liquidated  in  good  time  by  Spencer  dividends. 

You  will  thus  see  that  we  differ  materially  as  to  the  figures.  Of  course  each 
of  us  is  aiming  at  precisely  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  if  I  am  wrong,  please  correct 
me.  I  am  sure  that  you  do  not  desire  me  to  pay  a  dollar  that  is  not  due,  and  I  am 
equally  sure  that  I  am  more  than  ready  to  pay  every  cent  that  I  owe  you. 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 


93 


The  Little  Rock  matter  is  a  perpetual  and  never-ending  embarrassment  to  me. 
I  am  pressed  daily  almost  to  make  final  settlement  with  those  who  still  hold  the 
securities — a  settlement  I  am  not  able  to  make  until  I  receive  the  bonds  due  on 
your  article  of  agreement  with  me.  That  is  to  me  by  far  the  most  urgent  and 
pressing  of  all  the  demands  connected  with  our  matters,  and  the  one  which  I  think, 
in  all  equity,  should  be  first  settled,  or  certainly  settled  as  soon  as  any. 

If  the  $6,000  cash  is  so  important  to  you,  I  would  be  glad  to  assist  in  raising 
the  same  for  you  on  your  notes,  using  Little  Rock  bonds  as  collateral  at  same  rate 
they  are  used  in  Boston,  four  for  one.  I  think  I  could  get  the  money  here  on  four 
or  six  months  on  these  terms.  If  I  had  the  money  myself,  I  would  be  glad  to  ad- 
vance it  to,  but  I  am  as  dry  as  a  contribution-box,  borrowing,  indeed,  to  defray 
my  campaign  expenses. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq.,  Boston. 

III. 

Augusta,  Maine,  July  3,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  was  detained  far  beyond  my  expectations  in  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania,  being  there  quite  a  week.  I  was  in  Boston  on  Monday 
en  route  home,  but  I  was  so  prostrated  by  the  heat  that  I  had  no  strength  or 
energy  to  call  on  you. 

It  seems  to  me,  as  I  review  and  recall  our  several  conferences,  that  we  ought 
not  to  have  any  trouble  in  coming  to  an  easy  adjustment,  as  follows  :  First,  I  am 
ready  to  fulfill  the  memorandum  held  by  you  in  regard  to  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad,  as  I  always  have  been  ;  second,  you  are  ready  to  consider  the  land- 
bonds  in  my  possession  as  surrendered  in  payment  of  the  debt  to  which  they  were 
originally  held  as  collateral ;  third,  I  am  ready  to  pay  you  the  full  amount  of  cash 
due  you  on  memoranda  held  by  you,  provided  you  will  pay  me  half  the  amount  of 
bonds  due  me  on  memoranda  held  by  me,  the  cash  to  be  paid  and  the  bonds  to  be 
delivered  at  the  same  time.  As  to  further  sale  of  the  share  in  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad,  that  could  be  determined  afterward.  I  am  ready  to  do  all  in  my  power 
to  oblige  you  in  the  matter. 

If  we  can  adjust  the  first  and  second  points  herein  referred  to,  the  third  might 
be  left,  if  you  desire  it,  to  the  future. 

Hitherto  I  have  made  all  the  propositions  of  settlement.  If  this  is  not  accept- 
able to  you,  please  submit  your  views  of  a  fair  basis  in  writing. 

Sincerely  yours, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq. 

IY. 

"Washington,  April  26. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  Tours  of  24th  received.  There  seems  to  be  one  great 
error  of  fact  under  which  you  are  laboring  in  regard  to  my  ability  to  comply  with 
your  request  about  the  $10,000  letter  of  credit.  I  would  gladly  get  it  for  you  if  I 
were  able  ;  but  I  have  not  the  means.  I  have  no  power  of  getting  a  letter  of  credit 
from  Jay  Cooke  except  by  paying  the  money  for  it,  and  the  money  I  ham  not  got, 
and  have  no  means  of  getting  it.  You  ask  me  to  do  tJierefore  what  is  simply  impos- 
sible. Nothing  would  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  serve  you  if  I  were  able  ;  but 
my  losses  in  the  Fort  Smith  affair  have  entirely  crippled  me,  and  deranged  all  my 
finances.      You  would,  I  know,  be  utterly  amazed  if  you  could  see  the  precise 


94 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 


experience  I  have  had  in  that  matter.  Very  bitter,  I  assure  you.  Among  other 
things,  I  still  owe  nearly  all  of  the  $25,000  which  I  delivered  to  Mr.  Pratt,  and 
this  is  most  harassing  and  embarrassing  to  me. 

If  you  will  give  me  the  $76,500  of  bonds  which  I  propose  to  throw  off  as 
payment  of  the  notes  which  you  say  I  owe  you,  I  will  gladly  get  your  ten-thou- 
sand-dollar letter  of  credit ;  but  if  I  release  those  bonds  to  you,  as  I  propose,  you 
can  do  the  same  for  yourself. 

I  am  at  loss  to  know  what  you  mean  by  your  repeated  phrase  that  "  I  have 
denied  everything."  Whcri  have  I  denied?  I  do  not  so  much  as  understand  what 
you  mean,  and  would  be  glad  to  have  you  explain. 

You  reject  the  name  of  Ward  Cheney  as  a  friendly  referee.  Please  suggest  a 
name  yourself  of  some  one  known  to  both  of  us.  I  mean  for  you  to  suggest  a 
name  in  case  you  do  not  accept  my  basis  of  settlement  proposed  in  my  last  letter 
preceding  this.  Yours,  very  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq. 

When  do  you  propose  to  sail  for  Europe  ? 


Washington,  D.  C.,  April  22,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  Your  brief  note  received.  I  do  not  know  what  you 
mean  by  my  "not  mentioning  Northern  Pacific  and  denying  everything  else." 

You  have  my  obligation  to  deliver  to  you  a  specified  interest  in  Northern 
Pacific,  which  I  was  to  purchase  for  you,  and  in  which  I  never  had  a  penny's 
interest — direct  or  indirect.  Some  months  ago  you  wrote  me  (twice)  declaring 
that  you  would  not  receive  the  share,  but  demanding  the  return  of  the  money. 
This  was  impossible,  and  I  therefore  could  do  nothing  but  wait. 

Nothing  I  could  write  would  make  my  obligation  plainer  than  the  memorandum 
you  hold.  Nothing  you  could  write  would  change  my  obligation  under  that  mem- 
orandum. 

The  matters  between  us  are  all  perfectly  plain  and  simple,  and  I  am  ready  to 
settle  them  all  comprehensively  and  liberally.  I  am  not  willing  to  settle  those  that 
benefit  you  and  leave  to  the  chances  of  the  future  those  that  benefit  me. 

I  am  willing  to  forego  and  give  up  a  great  deal  for  the  sake  of  a  friendly  settle- 
ment, and  I  retain  a  copy  of  this  letter  as  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  the  offer  I  make. 
I  think,  if  we  cannot  settle  ourselves,  a  friendly  reference  would  be  the  best  chan- 
nel, and  I  propose  Mr.  Ward  Cheney,  who  stands  nearer  to  you  certainly  than  he 
does  to  me.     If  this  name  does  not  suit  you,  please  suggest  one  yourself. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  G.  BLAINE, 

Warren  Fisher,  Jr. 

VI. 

Washington,  May  26,  1864. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  Your  favor  received.  I  am  very  glad,  all  things  considered, 
that  the  Government  has  accepted  your  proposition  to  take  all  your  manufacture 
till  first  of  September,  1865.  It  gives  a  straight  and  steady  business  for  the  com' 
pany  for  a  good  stretch  of  time. 

In  regard  to  the  tax  provision  you  can  judge  for  yourself,  as  I  send  herewith  a 
copy  of  the  bill  as  reported  from  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate  and  now 
pending  in  that  body — see  pages  148,  149,  where  I  have  marked.     In  looking  over 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE.  95 

the  bill  you  will  please  observe  that  all  words  in  italic  letters  are  amendments  pro- 
posed by  the  Senate  Finance  Committee,  while  all  Avoids  included  in  brackets  are 
proposed  to  be  struck  out  by  same  committee. 

The  provision  which  you  inquire  about  was  not  in  the  original  bill,  but  was  an 
amendment  moved  from  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  by  Mr.  Kasson,  of  Iowa, 
to  whom  I  suggested  it.  It  is  just  and  proper  in  every  sense,  and  will  affect  a 
good  many  interests,  including  your  company.  I  am  glad  to  hear  such  good 
accounts  of  your  progress  in  the  affairs  of  the  company,  of  which  I  have  always 
been  proud  to  be  a  member. 

Tell  Mr.  "Welles  that  his  brother  has  been  nominated  by  the  Senate  for  com- 
missary of  subsistence,  with  rank  of  captain.  He  will  undoubtedly  be  confirmed 
as  soon  as  his  case  can  be  reached.    I  will  advise  as  soon  as  it  is  done. 

In  haste,  yours  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq. 


VII. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  18,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  answered  you  very  hastily  last  evening,  as  you 
said  you  wished  an  immediate  reply  ;  and  perhaps  in  my  hurry  I  did  not  make 
myself  fully  understood. 

You  have  been  for  some  time  laboring  under  a  totally  erroneous  impression  in 
regard  to  my  results  in  the  Fort  Smith  matter.  The  sales  of  bonds  which  you 
spoke  of  my  making,  and  which  you  seem  to  have  thought  were  for  my  own 
benefit,  were  entirely  otherwise.  I  did  not  have  the  money  in  my  possession  forty- 
eight  hours,  but  paid  it  over  directly  to  the  parties  whom  I  tried,  by  every  means 
in  my  power  to  protect  from  loss.  I  am  very  sure  that  you  have  little  idea  of  the 
labors,  the  losses,  the  efforts,  and  the  sacrifices  I  have  made  within  the  past  year 
to  save  those  innocent  persons,  who  invested  on  my  request,  from  personal  loss. 

And  I  say  to  you  to-night,  solemnly,  that  I  am  immeasurably  worse  off  than  if 
I  had  never  touched  the  Fort  Smith  matter. 

The  demand  you  make  upon  me  now  is  one  which  I  am  entirely  unable  to 
comply  with.  I  cannot  do  it.  It  is  not  in  my  power.  You  say  that  "necessity 
knows  no  law."  That  applies  to  me  as  well  as  to  you,  and  when  I  have  reached 
the  point  I  am  now  at,  I  simply  fall  back  on  that  law.  You  are  as  well  aware  as 
I  am  that  the  bonds  are  due  me  under  the  contract.  Could  I  have  these  I  could 
adjust  many  matters  not  now  in  my  power,  and  so  long  as  this  and  other  matters 
remain  unadjusted  between  us,  I  do  not  recognize  the  equity  or  the  lawfulness  of 
your  calling  on  me  for  a  partial  settlement.  I  am  ready  at  any  moment  to  make 
a  full,  fair,  comprehensive  settlement  with  you  on  the  most  liberal  terms.  I  will 
not  be  exacting  or  captious  or  critical,  but  am  ready  and  eager  to  make  a  broad 
and  generous  adjustment  with  you,  and  if  we  can't  agree  ourselves,  we  can  select 
a  mutual  friend  who  can  easily  compromise  all  points  of  difference  between  us. 

You  will,  I  trust,  see  that  I  am  disposed  to  meet  you  in  a  spirit  of  friendly 
cordiality,  and  yet  with  a  sense  of  self-defense  that  impels  me  to  be  frank  and 
expose  to  you  my  pecuniary  weakness 

With  very  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  I  am,  yours  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

W.  Fisher.  Jr.,  Esq 


96 


RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 


VIII. 

[Personal.] 

Augusta,  Maeste,  October  4,  1869. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  spoke  to  you  a  short  time  ago  about  a  point  of  interest  to 
your  railroad  company  tbat  occurred  at  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

It  was  on  the  last  night  of  the  session  when  the  bill  renewing  the  land  grant  to 
the  State  of  Arkansas  for  the  Little  Eock  road  was  reached,  and  Julian,  of 
Indiana,  Chairman  of  the  Public  Lands  Committee,  and,  by  right,  entitled  to  the 
floor,  attempted  to  put  on  the  bill,  as  an  amendment,  the  Fremont  El  Paso 
scheme, — a  scheme  probably  well  known  to  Mr.  Caldwell.  The  House  was  thin, 
and  the  lobby  in  the  Fremont  interest  had  the  thing  all  set  up,  and  Julian's 
amendment  was  likely  to  prevail  if  brought  to  a  vote.  Boots  and  the  other  mem- 
bers from  Arkansas,  who  were  doing  their  best  for  their  own  bill  (to  which  there 
seemed  to  be  no  objection),  were  in  despair,  for  it  was  well  known  that  the  Senate 
was  hostile  to  the  Fremont  scheme,  and  if  the  Arkansas  bill  had  gone  back  to  the 
Senate  with  Julian's  amendment,  the  whole  thing  would  have  gone  on  the  table 
and  slept  the  sleep  of  death. 

In  this  dilemma  Roots  came  over  to  me  to  know  what  on  earth  he  could  do 
under  the  rules ;  for  he  said  it  was  vital  to  his  constituents  that  the  bill  should  pass. 
I  told  him  that  Julian's  amendment  was  entirely  out  of  order,  because  not  ger- 
mane ;  but  he  had  not  sufficient  confidence  in  his  knowledge  of  the  rules  to  make 
the  point,  but  he  said  General  Logan  was  opposed  to  the  Fremont  scheme,  and 
would  probably  make  the  point.  I  sent  my  page  to  General  Logan  with  the 
suggestion,  and  he  at  once  made  the  point.  I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  sustain 
it  ;  and  so  the  bill  was  freed  from  the  mischievous  amendment  moved  by  Julian, 
and  at  once  passed  without  objection. 

At  that  time  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Caldwell,  but  you  can  tell  him  that,  without 
knowing  it,  I  did  him  a  great  favor. 

Sincerely  yours, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

W.  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq.,  24  India  Street,  Boston. 

IX. 

Augusta,  October  4,  1869. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  Find  inclosed  contracts  of  the  parties  named  in  my 
letter  of  yesterday.  The  remaining  contracts  will  be  completed  as  rapidly  as  cir- 
cumstances will  permit. 

I  enclose  you  a  part  of  the  Congressional  Globe  of  April  9,  containing  the  point 
to  which  I  referred  at  some  length  in  my  previous  letter  of  to-day.  You  will  find  it 
of  interest  to  read  it  over  and  see  what  a  narrow  escape  your  bill  made  on  that  last 
night  of  the  session.  Of  course  it  was  my  plain  duty  to  make  the  ruling  when  the 
point  was  once  raised.  If  the  Arkansas  men  had  not,  however,  happened  to  come 
to  me  when  at  their  wits'  end  and  in  despair,  the  bill  would  undoubtedly  have 
"been  lost,  or  at  least  postponed  for  a  year.  I  thought  the  point  would  interest 
both  you  and  Caldwell,  though  occurring  before  either  of  you  engaged  in  the 
enterprise. 

I  beg  you  to  understand  that  I  thoroughly  appreciate  the  courtesy  with  which 
you  have  treated  me  in  this  railroad  matter ;  but  your  conduct  towards  me  in 
business  matters  has  always  been  marked  by  unbounded  liberality  in  past  years, 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE.  97 

and,  of  course,  I  have  naturally  come  to  expect  the  same  of  you  now.  You  urge 
me  to  make  as  much  as  I  fairly  can  out  of  the  arrangement  into  which  we  have 
entered.  It  is  natural  that  I  should  do  my  utmost  to  this  end.  I  am  bothered 
oniy  by  one  thing,  and  that  is  definite  and  expressed  arrangement  with  Mr.  Cald- 
well. I  am  anxious  to  acquire  the  interest  he  has  promised  me,  but  I  do  not  get 
a  definite  understanding  with  him  as  I  have  with  you. 

I  shall  be  in  Boston  in  a  few  days,  and  shall  then  have  an  opportunity  to  talk 
the  matter  over  fully  with  you.  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  whatever  I  do  with 
Mr.  Caldwell  must  really  be  done  through  you. 

Kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Fisher. 

Sincerly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

W.  F.,  Jr.,  Esq. 

X. 

Augusta,  Maine,  July  2,  1869. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  You  ask  me  if  I  am  satisfied  with  the  offer  you  make 
me  of  a  share  in  your  new  railroad  enterprise. 

Of  course  I  am  more  than  satisfied  with  the  terms  of  the  offer.  I  think  it  a 
most  liberal  proposition. 

If  I  hesitate  at  all,  it  is  from  considerations  no  way  connected  with  the 
character  of  the  offer.  Your  liberal  mode  of  dealing  with  me  in  all  our  business 
transactions  of  the  past  eight  years  has  not  passed  without  my  full  appreciation. 
What  I  wrote  you  on  the  29th  was  intended  to  bring  Caldwell  to  a  definite  proposi- 
tion.    That  was  all. 

I  go  to  Boston  by  same  train  that  carries  this  letter,  and  will  call  at  your  office 
to-morrow  at  twelve  m.  If  you  don't  happen  to  be  in,  no  matter.  Don't  put  your- 
self to  any  trouble  about  it. 

Yours, 

W.  Fisher,  Jr.  J.  G.  B. 

XI. 

Augusta,  June  29, 1869. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  thank  you  for  the  article  from  Mr.  Lewis.     It  is 
good  in  itself  and  will  do  good.     He  writes  like  a  man  of  large  intelligence  and 
comprehension. 

Your  offer  to  admit  me  to  a  participation  in  the  new  railroad  enterprise  is  in 
every  respect  as  generous  as  I  could  expect  or  desire.  I  thank  you  very  sincerely 
for  it,  and  in  this  connection  I  wish  to  make  a  suggestion  of  a  somewhat  selfish 
character.  It  is  this :  You  spoke  of  Mr.  Caldwell  disposing  of  a  share  of  his 
interest  to  me.  If  he  really  designs  to  do  so,  I  wish  he  would  make  the  proposition 
definite,  so  that  I  could  know  just  what  to  depend  on.  Perhaps  if  he  waits  till  the 
full  development  of  the  enterprise  he  might  grow  reluctant  to  part  with  the  share ; 
and  I  do  not  by  this  mean  any  distrust  of  him. 

I  do  not  feel  that  I  shall  prove  a  dead-head  in  the  enterprise  if  I  once  embark 
in  it.    I  see  various  channels  in  which  I  know  I  can  be  useful. 
Very  hastily  and  sincerely,  your  friend, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
Mr.  Fisher, 

India  street,  Boston. 


98  RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 

XII. 

Washington,  May  14,  1870. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  think,  on  the  whole,  I  had  better  not  insist  on  the 
$40,000  additional  bonds  at  same  rate.     My  engagement  was  not  absolute,  and  I 
can  back  out  of  it  with  honor.     I  would  rather  do  this  than  seem  to  be  exacting 
or  indelicate. 

Besides,  I  have  always  felt  that  Mr.  Caldwell  manifested  the  most  gentlemanly 
spirit  toward  me,  and  designed  to  treat  me  handsomely  in  the  end.  On  the  whole, 
therefore,  I  shall  be  better  off  perhaps  to  let  things  remain  as  they  are.  But  I  will 
follow  your  judgment  in  this  matter  if  I  can  find  what  it  is. 

Very  hastily, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
W.  Fisher,  Esq. 

XIII. 

Augusta,  October  1,  1871. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fishes,  :  I  am  doing  all  in  my  power  to  expedite  and  hasten 
the  delivery  of  that  stock.  The  delay  has  been  occasioned  by  circumstances 
wholly  beyond  my  control.  But  I  shall  reach  a  conclusion  within  a  few  days  and 
make  the  formal  delivery  then.  It  will  be  an  immense  relief  to  get  it  off  my 
hands,  I  assure  you  ;  far  greater  than  it  will  be  for  you  to  receive  it. 

You  must  have  strangely  misunderstood  Mr.  Caldwell  in  regard  to  his  paying 
those  notes.  He  has  paid  me  in  all  just  $6,000,  leaving  $19,000  due,  which  I  am 
carrying  here  at  8  and  83^  per  cent,  interest,  and  which  embarrasses  me  beyond 
all  imagination.  I  do  not  really  know  which  way  to  turn  for  relief,  I  am  so 
pressed  and  hampered.  The  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  matter  has  been  a  sore 
experience  to  me,  and  if  you  and  Mr.  Caldwell  between  you  cannot  pay  me  the 
$19,000  of  borrowed  money,  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do.  Politically  I  am 
charged  with  being  a  wealthy  man.  Personally  and  pecuniarily  I  am  laboring 
under  the  most  fearful  embarrassments,  and  the  greatest  of  all  these  embarrass- 
ments is  the  $19,000  which  I  handed  over  under  your  orders,  and  not  one  dollar 
of  which  I  have  received.  Of  the  $25,000  original  debt,  Mr.  Caldwell  has  paid 
$6,000,  and  $6,000  only.  Can  you  not  give  me  some  hope  of  relief  in  this  matter  ? 
It  is  cruel  beyond  measure  to  leave  me  so  exposed  and  so  suffering. 

You  know  my  profound  regard  for  you  and  my  faith  in  you.  "We  have  been 
friends  too  long  and  too  intimately  to  allow  a  shade  between  us  now. 

Yours  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

XIY. 

Augusta,  Maine,  October  4,  1871. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  You  must  have  strangely  misunderstood  Mr.  Cald- 
well's statement  in  regard  to  his  paying  me  all  but  $2,500  of  the  $25,000  borrowed 
money  which  I.  loaned  the  company  through  him  and  you  last  January.  Mr. 
Caldwell  paid  me  in  June  $3,500,  and  in  July  $2,500  more,  accepting  at  same  time 
a  draft  for  $2,500,  July  10,  ten  days,  which  draft  remains  unpaid.  I  have,  there- 
fore, received  but  $6,000  from  Mr.  Caldwell,  leaving  $19,000  (besides  interest)  due 
me  to-day. 

For  this  $19,000  I  am  individually  held,  and,  considering  all  the  circumstances, 
I  think  you  and  Mr.  Caldwell  should  regard  it  as  an  honorary  debt,  and  you  should 
not  allow  me  to  suffer  for  money  which  I  raised  under  the  peculiar  circumstances 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE.  99 

attending  this.     It  is  a  singularly  hard  and  oppressive  case,  the  features  and  facts 
of  which  are  familiar  to  you  and  Mr.  Caldwell. 

And  then,  again,  I  have  been  used  with  positive  cruelty  in  regard  to  the  bonds. 

I  have  your  positive  written  contract  to  deliver  me  $125,000  land  bonds  and 
$32,500  first-mortgage  bonds.  The  money  due  you  on  the  contract  was  all  paid 
nearly  a  year  and  a  half  ago.  Of  this  whole  amount  of  bonds  due  me  I  have 
received  but  $50,000  land  grants,  leaving  $75,000  of  those  and  $32,500  first-mort- 
gage still  due.  I  know  you  are  pressed  and  in  trouble,  and  I  don't  wish  to  be  too 
exacting  ;  rather  I  wish  to  be  very  liberal  in  settlement. 

Now,  I  make  this  offer  :  Pay  me  the  cash  due  on  the  borrowed  money  account ; 
call  it  $19,000  in  round  numbers,  and  $40,000  land  bonds,  and  we  will  call  it 
square. 

Mr.  Caldwell  has  repeatedly  assured  me  that  I  should  be  paid  all  the  bonds  due 
me  under  contracts  with  you,  and  outside  of  that  $20,000  due  me  from  him.  I 
now  voluntarily  offer  to  make  a  very  large  reduction  if  I  can  have  the  matter 
closed. 

I  am  without  doubt  the  only  person  who  has  paid  money  for  bonds  without 
receiving  them,  and  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  I  have  fared  pretty 
roughly.  It  would  be  an  immense,  immeasurable  relief  to  me  if  I  could  receive 
the  money  in  time  to  pay  off  the  indebtedness  here  within  the  next  six  weeks,  so 
that  I  can  go  to  "Washington  this  winter  with  the  load  taken  off  my  shoulders.  It 
was  placed  there  in  the  fullest  faith  and  confidence  that  you  and  Mr.  Caldwell 
would  not  let  me  suffer.  I  still  cling  to  that  faith  and  confidence.  You  will  much 
oblige  me  by  showing  this  letter  to  Mr.  Caldwell. 

Yours,  very  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 
W.  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq.,  Boston. 

XV. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  13,  1872. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  I  have  your  favor  of  the  12th.  I  am  not  prepared  to 
pay  any  money  just  now  in  any  direction,  being  so  cramped  and  pressed  that  I  am 
absolutely  unable  to  do  so.  Please  send  me  a  copy  of  the  notes  of  mine  held  by 
you  with  indorsed  payments  thereon. 

I  would  have  been  glad,  instead  of  a  demand  upon  me  for  payment  of  notes, 
if  you  had  proposed  a  general  settlement  of  all  matters  between  us  that  remain  un- 
adjusted. There  is  still  due  to  me  on  articles  of  agreement  between  us  $70,000  in 
land  bonds,  and  $31,000  in  first-mortgage  bonds,  making  $101,000  in  all.  For 
these  bonds  the  money  was  paid  you  nearly  three  years  ago,  and  every  other  party 
agreeing  to  take  bonds  on  same  basis  has  long  since  received  its  full  quota.  I 
alone  am  left  hopeless  and  helpless,  so  far  as  I  can  see.  Then  there  is  the  $25,000 
which  I  borrowed  and  paid  over,  under  your  orders,  to  Mr.  Pratt,  for  which  I 
have  received  no  pay.  Mr.  Caldwell  paid  me  a  small  fraction  of  the  amount  as  I 
supposed,  but  he  now  says  the  money  he  paid  me  must  be  credited  to  another  account 
on  which  he  was  my  debtor,  and  that  he  denies  all  responsibility,  past,  present, 
and  future,  on  the  $25,000,  for  the  payment  of  which  I  must,  he  says,  look  solely 
to  you.  I  only  know  that  I  delivered  the  money  to  Mr.  Pratt  on  your  written 
order.  I  still  owe  the  money  in  Maine,  and  am  carrying  the  greater  part  of  it  at  8 
per  cent. — nearly  $2,000  per  annum  steady  draw  on  my  resources,  which  are 
slender  enough  without  this  burden. 


100  RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 

Still  further,  I  left  with  Mr.  Mulliken,  January,  1871,  $6,000  in  land-grant 
bonds  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  to  be  exchanged  for  a  like  amount  of  Little  Rock 
land  bonds  with  Mr.  Caldwell,  he  to  change  back  when  I  desire.  Mr.  Caldwell 
declined  to  take  them,  and  you  took  them  without  any  negotiation  with  me  or  any 
authority  from  me  in  regard  to  the  matter.  You  placed  the  Little  Rock  land 
bonds  in  the  envelope,  and  I  have  the  original  envelope  with  Mr  Mulliken's 
indorsement  thereon  of  the  fact  of  the  delivery  to  you.  Now,  I  do  not  complain  of 
your  taking  the  bonds,  provided  you  hold  yourself  bound  to  replace  them.  The 
worst  of  the  whole  matter  was  that  the  bonds  were  only  a  part  mine,  and  I  have 
had  to  make  good  the  others  to  the  original  owner. 

There  are  other  matters  to  which  I  would  refer  ;  but  my  letter  is  already  long. 

I  do  not  think,  under  the  circumstances,  it  would  be  quite  wise  or  kind  in  you 
to  place  any  note  or  notes  of  mine  that  may  happen  to  be  in  your  possession  in  the 
hands  of  third  parties  as  collateral. 

In  any  event  I  ask  as  a  simple  favor  that  you  will  not  do  so,  and  that  you  will 
send  me  by  return  mail  a  copy  of  all  obligations  of  mine  in  your  possession. 

Mrs.  Blaine  joins  me  in  very  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  and  in  the  expression 
of  the  hope  that  you  may  have  a  pleasant  and  profitable  tour  in  Europe. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  Esq.  J.  G.  BLAINE. 

In  response  to  the  request  of  Mr.  Glover,  Mr.  Blaine  sent  to  the  Clerk's  desk  to 
be  read  the  memorandum  of  Mr.  Mulligan,  containing  a  brief  statement  of  the  con- 
tents of  each  letter.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  letters  read  by  Mr.  Blaine  were  not 
in  the  order  stated  in  Mr.  Mulligan's  memorandum.  They  have  been  printed  here 
in  the  order  in  which  they  were  read  by  Mr.  Blaine. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

No.  1.  October  4,  '69,  relating  to  debate  in  the  House  and  Blaine's  ruling,  and 
favors  he  was  to  receive  from  C.  for  pressing  bill  extending  time  on  first  twenty 
miles. 

Mr.  Blaine — That  is  what  Mr.  Mulligan  puts  down  as  the  substance  of  the 
letters. 

The  Clerk  continued  the  reading  as  follows  : 

No.  2.  October  4,  '69,  on  same  subject. 

No.  3.  June  27,  '69,  thanking  Fisher  for  admitting  him  to  participation  in  L. 
&  F.  R.  R. ,  and  urging  him  to  make  call  ;  say  how  much  he  would  give  him,  and 
for  what.  He  knew  he  would  be  no  dead  head,  but  would  render  valuable  assist 
ance. 

No.  4.  July  25,  '69,  on  the  same  subject. 

No.  5.  September  5,  '69,  contract  with  different  parties.        # 

No.  6.  Contract  with  Northern  Pacific. 

No.  7.  May  14,  '70,  Caldwell  designs  to  treat  him  handsomely  in  the  end. 

No.  8.  October  24,  '71,  Fisher  to  Blaine,  urging  settlement  of  N.  P.  R.  account, 
$25,000. 

Mr.  Blaine — There  wTas  no  such  letter  in  the  package.  The  letter  he  speaks 
of  seems  to  have  been  a  letter  from  Mr.  Fisher  to  myself.  There  was  no  such  let- 
ter in  the  package  ;  and  the  numbers  he  gives  do  not  call  for  it.  There  are  fifteen 
letters  and  three  pieces  of  paper.     At  any  rate  that  was  not  a  letter  from  me. 

The  Clerk  continued  the  reading  as  follows  : 

No.  9.  October  4,  '71,  Blaine  admits  that  there  was  $6,000  paid  on  the  $25,000 
loan  and  to  have  received  $50,000  from  Fisher. 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE.  '  101 

No.  10.  October  1,  71,  admits  being  paid  $8,000  on  account  of  loan. 

Mr.  Blaine  sold  sundry  parties  $125,000  in  first  mortgage  bonds,  and  common 
stock  $125,000,  preferred  stock  $125,000  ;  for  which  was  paid  by  them  $125,000 
cash  ;  and  Mr.  Blaine  was  to  receive  for  his  share  of  the  transaction  $1 25, 000  in 
land-grant  bonds,  and  $32,500  in  first-mortgage  bonds.     Total,  $157,500. 

Now,  calling  land  and  first  mortgage  bonds  equal  in  value,  and  stock  valueless 
for  $125,000  plus  $157,000  equals  $282,000  bonds  ;  cash  $25,000  equals  44^  per 
cent. 

Mr.  Blaine  also  sold  sundry  parties  $63,000  bonds  and  $56,000  stock  for  cash 
$43,150. 

$15,150  less  cash  paid  Mr.  Blaine  for  his  share  in  the  transaction. 

$28,000  net  cash  received  by  Mr.  Fisher  for  the  above  $63,000  bonds  and 
$58,000  stock,  equal  44|§  per  cent,  for  the  bonds,  calling  stock  nothing. 

Mr.  Blaine  in  final  settlement,  September  21,  1872,  claimed  only  $101,000 
bonds  due  December  letter  (December  3,  '72) ;  he  previously  received  $61,000,  and 
was  to  look  to  Caldwell  for  balance. 

Sept.  21,  '72,  received  $40,000. 

No.  11.  Apl.  13,  1872,  saying  there  was  $101,000  bonds  due  him,  and  claiming 
that  there  was  due  him  on  Union  Pacific  bonds  exchanged  $6,000,  and  admitting 
that  there  were  some  of  them  his  own. 

No.  12.  Apl.  18,  1872,  admits  the  $64,000  sale  bonds,  and  paid  the  money  over 
in  forty-eight  hours  to  Maine  parties. 

No.  13.  Aug.  9,  '72,  as  dry  financially  as  a  contribution-box,  and  borrowing 
money  to  defray  his  campaign  expenses. 

No.  14.  Aug.  31,  '72,  about  settlement. 

No.  15.  May  26,  '64,  says  he  was  a  partner  in  the  Spencer  Rifle  Co, 

The  following  papers  were  printed  with  Mr.  Blaine's  speech  : 

Foot-note — Papers  I.  J,  and  K,  found  with  the  letters  surrendered  by  Mulligan, 
are  hereto  appended.  The  papers  relating  to  the  Northern  Pacific  road  are  not 
remembered  by  Mr.  Blaine,  the  handwriting  is  not  known  to  him,  and  he  can 
recall  no  connection  with  them  in  any  respect.  They  are,  however,  quite  unim- 
portant. 

I. 

Cost  of  i^  of  1  share,  $466,667,  is $58,333 

yQ  of  $416,667,  to  receive  in  bonds,  is  at  par  $52,083, 

at  90c,  would  be 46,875 


$11,458 

for  which  you  will  get  %  of  541,234  stock,  which  is  $67,654  ;  and  when  the  road  is 
finished  you  will  get  %  of  3,416,708,  which  is  427,088  in  stock,  besides  your 
interest  in  the  Land  Company,  which  is  proportionate.  Bonds  at  par  would  make 
the  above  amount  of  stock  cost  about  $6,250, 

J. 

Whereas,  under  certain  agreements  with  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  dated  May  20,  1869,  and  January  1,  1870,  Messrs.  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. 
have  become  fiscal  agents  for  the  negotiations  of  the  securities  of  said  company 
upon  the  terms  therein  stated ;  and  whereas,  under  said  agreements,  Jay  Cooke  & 
Co.  become  possessed  of  twelve  of  the  twenty-four  interests  constituting  the  com- 
pany and  representing  its  franchises  ;  and  whereas,  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  furnishing  funds  under  their  agreements  as  fiscal  agents,  for  the  construction 
and  equipment  of  the  road  from  its  intersection  with  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mis- 
sissippi Railroad  to  the  Red  River,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Cheyenne,  a  distance  of 
about  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles,  forming  a  complete  road  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  Red  River,  have  offered  to  the  subscribers,  for  the  first  five  millions 
of  dollars  of  the  first-mortgage  bonds  of  the  company,  the  following  terms, 
namely : 

The  subscribers  to  purchase  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  the  said  bonds  bearing  7.3  gold 
interest  at  par,  $5,000,000,  and  twelve  interests  in  the  company  at  $50,000  each, 
$600,000,  amounting  in  all  to  $5,600,000  ;  or,  say  twelve  shares  of  $466,667  each, 


102  RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 

to  be  paid  for  in  installments  extending  through  about  fifteen  months,  as  the  funds 
may  be  required  by  the  company,  for  which  each  share  shall  receive  as  follows  : 

Bonds,  one-twelfth  of  $5,000,000 $416,667 

Preliminary  issue  of  stock $93,400 

Twenty  per  cent,  stock  commissions  on  bonds. ...       83,334 


and  $40,500  stock  upon  completion  of  each  section  of  twenty-five  miles  of  the  road. 

Thus,  upon  completion  to  Red  river,  estimating  the  distance  at  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  miles  (nine  sections  of  twenty  five  miles  each),  each  share  will  have 
received  nine  times  $40,500,  equal  to  $364,500,  in  addition  to  previously  stated 
$176,734,  say  $541,234  stock ;  and  this  proportionate  issue  continuing  with  the 
progress  of  the  road,  upon  completion  to  the  Pacific  each  share  will  have  received 
in  all  $416,66?  bonds  and  $3,416,708  stock  (the  fractions  in  all  cases  being 
adjusted  in  even  figures),  and  the  entire  five  millions  of  bonds  will  thus  carry  with 
them  a  total  of  $41,000,500  stock. 

It  is  designed  in  addition  to  organize  a  private  land  company  for  the  purchase 
and  sale  of  desirable  town  sites  and  other  valuable  lands,  from  which  large  profits 
are  anticipated  ;  the  interests  in  such  company  to  be  held  in  the  same  proportion 
with  the  subscriptions  to  the  present  agreement,  and  the  funds  required  to  be 
assessed  correspondingly  from  time  to  time,  of  course,  with  the  consent  of  the 
parties. 

Upon  the  foregoing  terras,  we,  the  undersigned,  subscribe  the  shares  and 
portions  of  shares  set  opposite  our  names,  to  be  paid  for  in  installments  as  called, 
the  bonds  to  carry  interest  from  date  of  payments. 

It  is  also  hereby  agreed  by  the  subscribers,  whose  names  are  hereby  annexed, 
that  they  will  leave  with  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  their  proxies  on  all  stock  acquired 
under  the  terms  of  this  agreement,  and  that  they  will  not  dispose  of  any  of  the 
first  mortgage  bonds  subscribed  for,  unless  with  the  consent  of  said  Jay  Cooke  & 
Co. ,  or  until  such  sales  shall  cease  to  interfere  with  the  plans  of  the  fiscal  agents, 
for  providing  of  necessary  funds  for  the  completion  and  equipment  of  the  whole 
line  of  road. 

K. 

Boston,  September  5,  1869. 

Whereas  I  have,  this  day,  entered  into  agreements  with  A.  &  P.  Coburn,  and 
sundry  other  parties  resident  in  Maine,  to  deliver  to  them  certain  specified  amounts 
of  the  common  stock,  preferred  stock,  and  first-mortgage  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  Railroad  Company,  upon  said  parties  paying  to  me  the  aggregate  sum  of 
$130,000,  which  several  agreements  are  witnessed  by  J.  G.  Blaine  and  delivered  to 
said  parties  by  said  Blaine. 

Now  this  agreement  witnesses,  that  upon  the  due  fulfilment  of  the  several  con- 
tracts referred  to,  by  the  payment  of  the  $130,000,  and  for  other  valuable  consider- 
ations, the  receipt  of  which  is  acknowledged,  I  hereby  agree  to  deliver  to  J.  G. 
Blaine,  or  order,  as  the  same  come  into  my  hands  as  assignee  of  the  contract 
for  building  the  Little  Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Railroad,  the  following  securities, 
namely:  Of  the  land  bonds,  7  per  cents.,  $130,000  ;  of  the  first-mortgage  bonds, 
gold,  sixes,  $32,500.  And  these  $130,000  of  land  bonds  and  $32,500  of  first-mort- 
gage bonds  thus  agreed  to  be  delivered  to  said  Blaine  are  over  and  above  the  securi- 
ties agreed  to  be  delivered  by  Warren  Fisher,  Jr. ,  assignee,  to  the  parties  making 
the  contracts,  which  parties,  with  the  several  amounts  to  be  paid  by  each,  and  the 
securities  to  be  received  by  each,  are  named  in  a  memorandum  on  the  next  page  of 
this  sheet. 

And  it  is  further  agreed  that  in  the  event  of  any  one  of  said  parties  failing  to  pay 
the  amount  stipulated,  then  the  amount  of  securities  to  be  delivered  to  said  Blaine 
under  this  agreement  shall  be  reduced  in  the  same  proportion  that  the  deficit  of 
payment  bears  to  the  aggregate  amount  agreed  to  be  paid. 

WARREN  FISHER,  Jr.,  Assignee. 
Witness  : 

Alvan  R.  Flanders. 
[Stamp.] 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 


103 


Parties  Contracting  with  Warren,  Fisher,  Jr. ,  Assignee,  as  Referred  to  in  preceeding 

Agreement. 


1.  A.  &P.  Coburn.... 

2.  Peter  F.  Sanborn.  . . 

3.  Anson  P.  Morrill . . . 

4.  Ralph  C.  Johnson  . . 

5.  P.  R.  Hazeltine    . . . 

6.  C.  B.  Hazeltine 

7.  K  P.  Monroe 

8.  A.  "W.  Johnson 

9.  H.  H.  Johnson 

10.  Philo  Hersey 

11.  Lot  M.Morrill 

12.  A.  B.  Farwell 

13.  Joseph  H.  Williams. 

14.  Charles  M.  Bailey. . . 


TO  PAY 

TO   RECEIVE 

Cash. 

Common 

Preferred 

stock. 

stock. 

$50,000 

$50,000 

$50,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

First-mortgage 
bonds. 

$50,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5.000 


$130,000       $130,000      $130,000        $130,000 

In  addition  to  the  above,  there  are  to  be  delivered  to  J.  G.  Blaine's  order  of  the 
land  bonds  in  7s.,  currency,  $130,000  ;  first-mortgage  bonds,  6s.,  gold,  $32,500. 

Cong.  Recordist  Sess.  44th  Cong.,  Vol.  4,  pt.  4,  pp.  3602-3603,  3604-3605, 
3606,  3607,  3608  3609,  etseq. 

It  will  be  noted  by  the  reader  that  Mr.  Blaine  in  presenting  these  letters  did 
not  present  them  in  the  order  of  their  dates,  but  purposely  juggled  them  so  as 
to  confuse  the  judgment  and  to  prevent  his  hearers  gathering  their  full  purport. 

How  Blaine  Obtained  the  Letters. 

Mr.  Fisher  was  the  contractor  for  a  portion  of  L.  R.  &  F.  S.  R.  R.,  and  was  also 
in  business  in  Boston  as  partners  with  a  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Blaine.  Mr.  Mulligan 
was  cashier  of  the  Adams'  Sugar  Refinery,  Boston,  in  which  Mr.  Fisher  was  a  part- 
ner, and  was  also  bookkeeper  for  Mr.  Fisher.  Mr.  Mulligan  had  in  his  possession  by 
Mr.  Fisher's  consent  (see  testimony  of  Mr.  Fisher,  Misc.  Doc.  176,  page  118), 
certain  letters  written  in  1864-72  by  Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Fisher,  and  which  Mr. 
Blaine  supposed  to  have  been  given  back  to  him  in  Sept.  1872.  (Testimony  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  Misc.  Doc,  176,  page  107.) 

When  Mr.  Mulligan  reached  Washington  and  before  he  testified,  Mr.  Blaine 
sent  to  ask  Mr.  Mulligan  to  call  upon  him,  which  the  latter  declined  to  do, 
whereupon  Mr.  Blaine  called  upon  Mr.  Mulligan  at  the  Riggs  House,  and  found 
him  in  the  barber  shop.  The  next  day  (Slay  31),  Mr.  Mulligan  was  sworn  and 
examined  as  a  witness  (Misc.  Doc,  176,  page  93).  He  mentioned  but  did  not 
exhibit  any  letters.  What  then  occurred  was  stated  by  Mr.  Hunton  in  his  remarks 
in  the  House,  as  follows  : 

In  the  course  of  his  examination  the  first  day  Mr.  Mulligan  was  testifying  very 
quietly  ;  there  was  no  excitement  in  the  committee  room  at  all  when  he  happened 
to  mention  that  he  had  in  his  possession  certain  letters  written  by  Mr.  Blaine  to 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.  The  mention  of  these  letters  seemed  to  have  a  remarkable 
?ffect  upon  Mr.  Blaine,  for  in  a  moment  or  two  afterward  he  whispered  to  Mr. 


104  RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 

Lawrence,  the  Republican  member  of  that  committee,  "Move  an  adjournment." 
It  so  happened  that  I  heard  the  suggestion.  Mr.  Lawrence  got  up  with  great 
solemnity  on  his  countenance  and  said,  ' '  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  very  sick  and  I 
hope  the  committee  will  adjourn."     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Lawrence  rose. 

Mr.  Hunton — I  hope  the  gentleman  is  better  to-day. 

Mr.  Lawrence — Will  my  colleague  on  the  committee  allow  me  to  ask  a  ques- 
tion or  make  a  statement  ? 

Mr.  Hunton — Certainly. 

Mr.  Lawrence — I  will  ask  my  colleague  whether,  when  I  went  into  the  com- 
mittee-room on  that  morning,  the  first  thing  I  said  to  him  before  I  had  spoken  to 
anybody  else,  was  not  that  I  had  been  exceedingly  sick  during  the  night  ? 
[Laughter.]  I  had  been  to  Baltimore  on  the  day  before;  and  though  I  had  not 
indulged  in  anything  that  would  necessarily  make  me  sick,  yet  I  was  extremely 
sick,  so  much  so  that  it  was  with  difficulty  I  sat  there  at  all.  I  said  simply  what 
was  true  when  I  said  that  I  was  extremely  unwell ;  and  as  the  gentleman  knows  I 
have  been  quite  unwell  ever  since.     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Frye — What  time  was  it  when  it  was  proposed  to  adjourn  ? 

Mr.  Lawrence — It  was  then  half-past  twelve  o'clock,  half  an  hour  beyond 
the  time  when  the  committee  usually  adjourns  to  attend  the  sittings  of  the  House. 
Now,  my  friend  says  that  he  heard  the  remark  of  Mr.  Blaine  asking  me  to  move  to 
adjourn.     It  was  not  necessary  that  I  should  state  what  Mr.  Blaine  had  said  to  me. 

Mr.  Htjnton — Nobody  asked  you  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Lawrence — The  gentleman  says  he  heard  it ;  but  it  was  not  necessary  that 
I  should  state  every  ground  for  asking  the  adjournment. 

Mr.  Hunton — Certainly  not. 

Mr.  Lawrence — It  was  sufficient  that  I  deemed  it  necessary  to  ask  an  adjourn- 
ment.    [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Hunton — The  gentleman  has  stated  the  matter  exactly  as  it  occurred.  He 
did  come  in  in  the  morning  sick. 

Mr.  Lawrence — Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Hunton — But  he  went  to  work  in  a  most  vigorous  style  for  two  hours. 

Mr.  Lawrence — But  I  became  exhausted. 

Mr.  Hunton — When  those  letters  were  mentioned  the  gentleman  became  sick, 
and  somebody  else  sicker.  [Laughter.]  And  the  motion  to  adjourn  was  made  at 
his  suggestion. 

Mr.  Lawrence — It  ought  to  be  said  in  justice  to  Mr.  Blaine  that  so  far  as  any- 
thing said  by  him  to  me  could  indicate  his  purpose,  the  motion  to  adjourn  sug- 
gested by  him  was  not  caused  by  any  fear  of  what  was  going  on. 

Thereupon  the  committee  adjourned  until  ten  o'clock  the  next  morning ;  and 

when  the  committee  met  James  Mulligan  was  put  upon  the  stand  again  to  corn- 

plete  his  examination  which  had  been  interrupted  by  the  adjournment. 

Mr.  Mulligan  makes  a  Personal  Explanation. 

Mr.  Mulligan  said,  June  1  (Mis.  Doc.  176,  pt.  1,  p.  98) : 

I  wish  to  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  Committee  for  a  few  moments  to  make  a 
personal,  and  to  me,  a  painful  statement.  When  I  first  arrived  in  this  city,  and 
within  about  fifteen  minutes  after  my  arrival,  there  came  a  communication  from 
Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Fisher.  Of  course,  I  wish  it  understood  that  I  am  stating  this 
under  oath. 

Mr.  Hunton — We  so  understand  it. 

Mr.  Mulligan — There  came  a  communication  from  Mr.  Blaine,  inviting 
Fisner  ana  me  up  to  his  residence.  I  declined  to  go,  for  the  reason  that  I  did  not 
want  to  have  it  said  that  I  had  gone  to  see  Mr.  Blaine.  I  wanted  to  come  to  this 
committee-room  untrammeled  by  any  influence.  Mr.  Fisher  went  up  to  Mr. 
Blaine's  house,  or  at  least,  he  so  reported  to  me ;  and  he  told  Mr.  Blaine 
about  certain  facts  that  I  could  prove,  and  certain  letters  that  I  had  got.  Mr- 
Blaine  said  that  if  I  should  publish  them  they  would  ruin  him  for  life, 
or  that  if  this  committee  got  hold  of  them  they  would  ruin  him  for  life, 
and  wanted  to  know  if  I  would  not  surrender  them.  I  told  him  "no," 
and  that  I  would  not  give  them  to  the  committee  unless  it  should  turn  out  lhat  it 
was  necessary  for  me  to  produce  them.      After  my  examination  here  yesterday, 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE.  105 

Mr.  Blaine  came  up  to  the  hotel,  the  Riggs  House,  arid  there  had  a  conference 
with  Mr.  Atkins,  Mr.  Fisher,  and  myself.  He  wanted  to  see  these  letters  that  1 
had.  I  declined  to  let  him  see  them.  He  prayed,  almost  went  on  his  knees — I 
would  say,  on  his  knees — and  implored  me  to  think  of  his  six  children  and  his  wife, 
and  that  if  the  committee  should  get  hold  of  this  communication  it  would  sink  him 
immediately  and  ruin  him  forever.  I  told  him  I  should  not  give  them  to  him. 
He  asked  me  if  I  would  let  him  read  them.  I  said  I  would  if  he  would  promise  me 
on  the.  word  of  a  gentleman  that  he  would  return  them  to  me.  I  did'  let  him 
read  them  over.  He  read  them  over  once  and  called  for  them  again  and 
read  them  over  again.  He  still  importuned  me  to  give  those  papers  up. 
I  declined  to  do  it.  I  retired  to  my  own  room  and  he  followed  me  up,  and  went 
over  the  same  history  about  his  family  and  his  children,  and  implored  me  to  give 
them  up  to  him,  and  even  contemplated  suicide.  He  asked  me  if  I  wanted  to  see 
his  children  left  in  that  state,  and  he  then  asked  me  again  if  I  would  not  let  him 
look  over  these  papers  consecutively  (I  had  them  numbered).  I  told  him  I  would 
if  he  would  return  them  to  me.  He  took  the  papers,  read  them  all  over,  and  among 
them  I  had  a  memorandum  that  I  had  made  by  way  of  synopsis  of  the  letters,  and 
referring  to  the  numbers  of  the  letters— a  synopsis  containing  the  point  of  the 
letters.  I  had  made  that  memorandum  so  as  to  be  able  to  refer  to  here  when 
questioned.  He  asked  me  to  let  him  read  the  letters  and  I  showed  him 
this  statement  too.  After  he  had  them  read,  he  asked  me  what  I 
wanted  to  do  with  those  papers  ;  if  I  wanted  to  use  them.  I  told  him  I  never 
wanted  to  use  the  papers,  nor  would  not  show  them  to  the  commitee  unless  called 
upon  to  do  so.  Then  he  asked  me  if  I  would  not  give  them  to  him.  There  was 
one  letter  in  particular  that  he  wanted  me  to  give  him.  I  told  him  I  would  not  do 
it,  and  the  only  reason  I  would  not  do  it  was  because  I  saw  it  stated  in  one  of  the 
■evening  papers  here,  the  Star,  I  think,  that  the  Blaine  party  were  going  to  com- 
pletely break  down  the  testimony  that  I  had  given  yesterday — that  they  were  satis- 
tied  about  that.  I  said  I  should  not  publish  these  letters  unless  my  testimony  were 
impeached  or  impugned.  That  was  the  only  reason  that  I  wanted  to  keep  them, 
but  I  wanted  to  keep  them  for  that  purpose.  These  are  the  facts,  gentlemen,  and 
I  leave  them  to  you.  If  I  understand  the  order  under  which  the  committee  meets, 
this  committee  has!  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  and  I  want  the  com- 
mittee to  get  for  me  those  papers.  Mr.  Blaine  has  got  them,  and  would  not  give 
them  up  to  me. 

By  Mr.  Lawrence — Mr.  Blaine  has  these  papers  ?  A.  Yes  ;  he  took  them 
from  me  last  night. 

To  Mr.  Lawrence — No  one  was  present  but  Mr.  Blaine  and  I.  *  *  I  did  not 
get  them  (the  letters)  surreptitiously.  They  were  given  to  me  by  Mr.  Fisher  for 
»ny  purpose  I  deemed  proper. 

To  Mr.  Ashe — Mr.  Biaine  has  the  memorandum. 

Blaine  Offers  Mulligan  a  Consulship. 

The  examination  of  Mr.  Mulligan  was  continued  at  some  length.  He  stated 
that  Mr.  Blaine  asked  him  if  he  would  not  like  a  consulship.  Mr.  Blaine,  though 
present,  did  not  ask  the  witness  any  questions  about  the  way  in  which  he  had  lost 
possession  of  the  letters.  On  the  same  day  Mr.  Blaine  made  a  statement  to  the 
Committee,  under  oath,  admitting  that  he  had  received  the  letters  from  Mr. 
Mulligan  on  his  promise  to  return  them,  and  that  he  had  returned  them  once ; 
that  later  he  secured  them  again  and  refused  to  restore  them,  assigning  as  his 
reason  that  Mr.  Mulligan  threatened  to  publish  them  if  his  testimony  were 
impeached  or  impugned.     [Mis.  Doc.  176.  pt.  1,  p.  106.] 

The  Chairman  (Mr.  Hunton)  asked  of  Mr.  Blaine  the  production  of  the  letters 
obtained  from  Mr.  Mulligan.  This  Mr.  Blaine  declined  to  do  ;  he  declined,  also, 
to  produce,  in  answer  to  the  request  of  the  Chairman,  the  memorandum  made 
by  Mr.  Mulligan  of  the  contents  of  the  letters  (Mis.  Doc.  176,  pt.  1,  p.  108).  This 
was  June  1.  June  5,  Mr.  Blaine  read  in  the  House  the  letters  above  given,  and 
which  he  described  as  every  ' '  scrap  and  scrimption "  of  what  he  had  got  from 


106 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 


Mulligan.  June  10,  Mr.  Hunton  again,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee,  requested 
the  production  of  the  letters  and  accompanying  memorandum,  and  Mr.  Blaine 
again  refused.  It  was  about  this  time  Mr.  Blaine  had  his  timely  sunstroke.  The 
Committee  held  no  further  sessions. 

From  the  testimony,  it  appears  that  Mr.  Blaine,  at  the  beginning  of  the  investi- 
gation, did  not  know  the  letters  were  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Mulligan  ;  that  when 
the  latter  stated  to  the  Committee  that  he  had  certain  letters  of  Mr.  Blaine's  to  Mr. 
Fisher,  Mr.  Blaine  turned  to  the  Republican  member  of  the  Committee,  Mr.  Law- 
rence, and  entreated  him  to  have  the  Committee  adjourn  ;  that  the  Committee  did  ad- 
journ, and  that  Mr.  Blaine  visited  Mr.  Mulligan  the  same  evening  at  his  hotel,  and 
begged  him  to  give  him  the  letters,  and  that  his  entreaty  failing,  he  obtained  pos- 
session of  them  by  fraud,  and  refused  to  produce  them  when  called  upon  by  the 
Committee  to  do  so.  Whether  all  the  contents  of  these  letters  were  read  by  Mr. 
Blaine  in  the  House  or  not,  cannot  be  known,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  refused  to  pro- 
duce them  where  he  could  be  examined  under  oath  as  to  their  contents.  They  were 
not  lead  by  him  in  chronological  order,  and  although  these  letters  have  been  pub- 
lished in  newspapers  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  made  the  evidence  for  the 
charge  of  corruption  in  office,  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  Plumed  Knight,  so  prompt 
to  fly  to  the  defense  of  his  honor,  has  ever  instituted  a  suit  for  libel  against  any  of 
the  newspapers  that  have  charged  him  with  trading  upon  his  official  trust  for  his 
pecuniary  gain ;  nor  did  he,  while  Senator,  ask  an  investigation  to  demonstrate 
his  innocence.  To  the  grand  inquest  of  the  American  people  the  evidence  of  his 
guilt  is  submitted,  and  their  sober  judgment  may  confidently  be  relied  upon  to 
punish  wrong  and  uphold  the  right. 

Statement  Concerning  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Railroad  Transactions,  Arranged  Chronologically. 

AUTHORITIES. 

Mr.  Blaine's  speeches  and  letters  ;  the  "  Congressional  Globe  "  and  "Record  ;'* 
evidence  taken  before  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
44th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.  H.  R.  Mis.  Doc.  176,  pt.  1. 

EVIDENCE. 

A  charter  had  been  granted  for  a  railroad  from  Little  Rock  to  Fort  Smith  in 
1853,  which  had  lapsed. 

July  28,  1866,  the  charter  was  renewed  with  some  additions.  (See  "  Cong. 
Globe,"  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  appendix  p.,  422,  and  Laws  of  the  U.  S.,  Chap.  CCC, 
for  full  text  of  this  act.) 

In  1869  this  charter  was  in  danger  of  lapsing,  as  the  first  twenty  miles,, 
required  to  be  built  within  three  years  from  the  date  of  the  act,  were  not  com- 
pleted. 

April  8, 1869,  a  bill  to  extend  the  time  for  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Rail- 
road Company  to  complete  the  first  section  of  twenty  miles  of  said  road  was  before 
the  House,  Mr.  Blaine,  Speaker,  in  the  chair.  Mr.  Julian  offered  an  amendment, 
to  the  bill  granting  certain  privileges  to  the  Memphis,  El  Paso  and  Pacific  Rail- 
road.    Whereupon  Mr.  Logan  said  •. 

Mr.  Logan — I  rise  to  a  question  of  order,  that  this  amendment  is  not  germane 
to  the  pending  bill.  The  bill  is  to  revive  a  certain  land  grant  and  to  extend  the 
time,  while  the  amendment  is  another  charter  for  a  Pacific  Railroad,  authorizing 
the  building  of  bridges,  granting  the  right  of  way  and  everything  else  of  the  sort. 
I  have  been  in  favor  of  the  pending  Arkansas  bill,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  be  made 
to  carry  this  Pacific  Railroad  bill.     I  do  not  think  the  amendment  is  in  order. 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE.  107 

The  Speaker — The  Chair  sustains  the  point  of  order  for  two  reasons.  It  is 
expressly  prohibited  by  the  rule  that  where  a  land  grant  is  under  consideration 
another  grant  to  a  different  company  shall  be  entertained.  This  is  not  a  specific 
land  grant,  but  it  does  give  away  the  public  land  of  the  United  States  so  far  as  to 
give  the  right  of  way.  Again,  by  the  rules,  no  proposition  upon  a  subject 
different  from  that  under  consideration  can  be  admitted  under  color  of  amendment. 

Compare  letter  of  October  4,  1869,  No.  VIII.,  wherein  Mr.  Blaine  states  that 
he  sent  his  page  to  Mr.  Logan  with  the  suggestion  that  he  at  once  make  the  point 
of  order,  and  requesting  Fisher  to  tell  Mr.  Caldwell  the  great  favor  he  had  done 
him,  and  the  following  statement  made  by  Mr.  Blaine  in  his  speech  of  April 
24,  1876 : 

"  As  to  the  question  of  propriety  involved  in  a  member  of  Congress  holding  an 
investment  of  this  kind,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  lands  were  granted  to  the 
State  of  Arkansas,  and  not  to  the  railroad  company,  and  that  the  company  derived 
its  life,  franchise,  and  value  wholly  from  the  State." 

The  conclusion  cannot  be  resisted  after  a  perusal  of  Mr.  Blaine's  letter  (No. 
VIII.)  that  the  statement  above  quoted  from  his  speech  of  April  24,  was  one  he 
knew  to  be  untrue  when  he  uttered  it.  It  is  obvious  that  had  the  State  of  Arkan- 
sas been  the  beneficiary,  Mr.  Blaine  could  have  rendered  no  "great  favor"  to 
Caldwell. 

The  Act  Concerning  Which  Blaine  was  not  a  Deadhead. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  act : 

Chap.  xxvi.     An  Act  to  extend  the  Time  for  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Railroad  Company  to  complete  the  first  section  of  twenty  miles  of  said  road. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  an  act  approved  July  twenty-eight,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-six,  entitled  ' '  An  act  to  revive  and  extend  the  provisions  of 
'  An  act  granting  the  right  of  way  and  making  a  grant  of  land  to  the  States  of 
Arkansas  and  Missouri,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  a  point  upon 
the  Mississippi  river,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  river,  via  Little  Rock,  to  the 
Texas  boundary  near  Fulton  in  Arkansas,  with  branches  to  Fort  Smith  and  the 
Mississippi  river,'  approved  February  nine,  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-three,  and 
for  other  purposes,"  be  so  amended  as  to  extend  the  time  of  the  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  Railroad  Company,  for  building  the  first  section  of  twenty  miles  pro- 
vided for  in  the  second  section  of  said  act,  for  the  term  of  three  years  from  the 
thirteenth  day  of  May,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven,  the  time  of  filing  the 
certificate  of  organization  to  said  company,  provided  for  in  the  third  section  of 
said  act ; 

Provided,  That  the  land  granted  by  the  act  hereby  revived  shall  be  sold  to 
actual  settlers  only  in  quantities  not  greater  than  one  quarter  of  a  section  to  one 
purchaser,  and  for  a  price  not  exceeding  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre. 

Approved,  April  10,  1869. 

June,  1869,  Mr.  Blaine  desired  a  definite  proposition  concerning  an  interest  in 
the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad,  as  is  shown  by  his  letters  of  June  29  (No. 
XL.),  and  July  2  (No.  X.),  which  see. 

September  5,  1869,  Mr.  Blaine  had  been  acting  as  agent  for  a  valuable  con- 
sideration in  placing  bonds  of  the  Little  and  Rock  Fort  Smith  Railroad.  (See 
Appendix  K,  ante).  Compare  the  terms  of  the  agreement  contained  in  Appen- 
dix K  with  the  statement  of  Mr.  Blaine,  April  24,  1876  : 

"  In  common  with  hundreds  of  other  people  in  New  England,  and  other  parts 
of  the  country,  I  bought  some  of  these  bonds — not  a  very  large  amount — paying 
for  them  at  precisely  the  same  rates  others  paid."  And  again:  "That  instead 
of  receiving  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  as  a  gratuity,  I 
never  had  one  except  at  the  regular  market  price.'' 


108 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 


The  speech  of  Mr.  Blaine  is  again  contradicted  by  his  letters.     If  he  bought 

these  bonds  "paying  for  them  precisely  the  same  rates  as  others  paid."  what  could 

he  mean  by  writing  to  Mr.  Fisher  June  29,  1869  (No.  XI) : 

"  Your  offer  to  admit  me  to  a  participation  in  the  new  railroad  enterprise  is  in 
every  respect  as  generous  as  I  could  expect  or  desire." 

And  under  date  of  July  2,  1869  (No.  X) : 

"Of  course  I  am  more  than  satisfied  with  the  terms  of  the  offer  ;  I  think  it  a 
most  liberal  proposition." 

And  again  : 

"  You  spoke  of  Mr.  Caldwell's  offer  to  dispose  of  a  share  of  his  interest  to 
me ;  I  wish  he  would  make  the  proposition  definite,  so  that  I  could  know  just 
what  to  depend  on?" 

And  further  : 

' '  I  am  bothered  by  only  one  thing,  and  that  is  definite  and  expressed  arrange- 
ments with  Mr.  Caldwell.  I  am  anxious  to  acquire  the  interest  he  has  promised 
me." 

It  is  manifest  that  these  expressions  refer  to  more  than  permission  to  buv  the 

bonds  at  the  same  rates  paid  by  others. 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Mulligan  bears  on  this  point. 

Examination  of  Mr.  Mulligan. 

By  Mr.  Blaine  : 

Q.  What  were  the  bonds  that  went  to  the  Maine  parties  ?  what  denomination 
•of  bonds  were  they,  land  grants  or  first  mortgage  bonds  ? 

A.  (Referring  to  memorandum.)  I  can  tell  you,  sir,  and  I  presume  you  won't 
dispute  it,  because  it  is  in  your  own  handwriting.  (Producing  memorandum 
book  labeled,  "  Warren  Fisher,  Jr. ,  private, "  which  he  hands  to  the  chairman.) 
There  are  all  the  parties'  names,  if  you  want  them.  You  can  have  the  whole  history 
now. 

By  Mr.  Hunton  : 

Q.  In  whose  handwriting  is  this  book  ? 
A.  James  G.  Blaine's. 

The  Chairman — Now  proceed  to  answer  the  question. 

The  Witness— The  $130,000  bonds  that  were  sold  to  these  different  parties 
here  were  first  mortgage  bonds. 

By  Mr.  Blaine  : 

Q.  They  were  first  mortgage  and  not  land  grant  bonds  ? 

A.  Yes  ;  the  next  sale  was  on  a  different  "  lay  "  from  that  other. 

By  Mr.  Hunton  : 

Q.  Was  that  to  Maine  parties  ? 

A.  Yes  ;  and  sold  on  a  different  basis  ;  one  man  had  $8,000  land  grant  bonds 
and  $10,000  first  mortgage  bonds  ;  that  was  $18,000  for  one  man  ;  another  man 
had  $6,000  land  grant  bonds  and  $7,500  first  mortgage  bonds  ;  another  had  $9,000 
land  grant  bonds  and  $11,250  first  mortgage  bonds. 

Q.  Were  all  the  sales  which  you  have  referred  to  made  by  or  through  Mr. 
Blaine  ? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  And  in  addition  to  the  bonds  you  have  just  spoken  of  as  coming  to  these 
purchasers,  what  sort  of  bonds  did  Mr.  Blaine  get  ? 

A.  He  was  to  get  $130,000  of  land  grant  bonds  and  $32,500  of  first  mortgage 
bonds. 
By  Mr.  Blaine  : 

Q.  You  do  not  testify  that  I  actually  got  these  ? 

A.  No,  sir ;  I  say  there  is  about  $36,500  that  are  due  you  yet. 

By  Mr.  Hunton  : 

Q.  That  is,  he  got  all  except  thirty-six  bonds  ? 
A.  Yes. 


RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 


109 


By  Mr.  Frye  : 

Q.  Do  you  know  whether  they  were  sent  to  him  or  to  the  Maine  men  ? 
A.  I  know  that  the  men  paid  their  subscriptions  to  me,  and  I  gave  receipts  for 
them. 

Q.  But  do  you  know  that  Mr.  Blaine  got  his  ? 

A.  I  sent  the  other  parties'  bonds  to  them  by  express,  and  Mr.  Blaine  got  his. 

By  Mr.  Hotton  : 

Q.  You  sent  by  express  the  bonds  to  the  Maine  party,  and  delivered  to  Mr. 
Blaine  his  in  person  ? 

A.  No  ;  I  didn't  deliver  them  to  him  in  person,  but  Mr.  Fisher  did  so.  Mr. 
Blaine  has  acknowledged  that  he  got  all  those.     I  gave  him  myself  one  lot  of  forty. 

Q.  He  got  all  those  $130,000  land  bonds  and  $32,500  first  mortage  bonds, 
except  $36,000  ;  that  is  to  say,  thirty-six  bonds  ? 

'A.  Yes. 

The  following  are  the  contents  of  the  memorandum  book  produced  by  the  wit- 
ness, and  which  is  labeled  on  the  outer  cover : 

" Warren  Fisher,  Jr., private" 

[First  page  of  mem.  book.] 

Synopsis  on  next  and  following  pages  of  the  contracts  made  through  J.  G. 
Blaine  by  Warren  Fisher,  Jr. ,  as  assignee  of  the  contract  for  building  the  Little 
Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Railroad. 

[Second  and  third  pages  of  mem.  book.] 

Contracts  made  by  Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  with  the  following-named  persons  to 
deliver  the  stock  and  bonds  named,  on  their  paying  the  amounts  named  : 


Residence. 

To  Pay. 

To  Receive. 

Namb. 

Common 
Stock 

Preferred 
Stock. 

First  m. 
Bonds. 

|5o,ooo  V 

10,000 

10,000  V 

Vio.ooo 

^5,000 

V5,ooo 

Vs.ooo 

V5,ooo 

/V5,ooo 

Vs.ooo 

V5,ooo 

5,000 

5,000 

V5,ooo 

$50,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,oco 

5,000 

5,000 

5,  coo 

5,000 

5,000 

$50,000 

10,000 

10,000 

10,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5.000 

5.000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

5,000 

$50,000 

Belfast 

io'ooo 

10'oco 

5.000 
5,000 
5.000 
5,000 
5,000 
5,000 
5,000 
5,000 
5,oco 
5,000 

xC  B  Hazeltine 

it 

<< 

x  A.  W.  Johnson  (dec'd) 

<< 

« 

<< 

x  Lot  M   Morrill 

x  A   B    Farnell 

tt 

*Jos    H   Williams 

xC   M    Ba^ey 

$130,000 

$130,000 

$130,000 

$130,000 

[*  The  name,  Jos.  H.  Williams,— "$5,000,"  is  erased  in  pencil.]    (See  over.) 


[Fourth  page  of  memorandum  book.] 

In  addition  to  the  common  stock,  preferred  stock,  and  first  mortgage  bonds 
agreed  to  be  delivered  to  the  respective  parties  named  on  the  preceding  page, 
Mr.  Fisher  agrees  to  deliver  to  James  G.  Blaine  a  similar  amount  of  land  bonds 
and  25  per  cent,  of  first-mort.  bonds,  viz.: 

Land  bond,  7s $130,000 

First-mortgage  bonds,  6s 32,500 

The  same  to  be  del'd  by  Mr.  Fisher  as  soon  as  ready  for  distribution. 


110  RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 

[Fifth  page  of  memorandum  booh.'] 

The  other  contracts  on  different  bases  are  as  follows  : 

1.  With  Joseph  A.  Sanborn  and   Charles  M.   Bailey,   Mr.  Fisher  agrees  to 
deliver — 

$8,000  common  stock. 
+8,000  preferred  stock. 

8,000  land  bonds. 
10,000  first-mortgage  bonds. 
All  for  12,500,  payable— 
$600  )  £3,000,  November  25,  1869. 

$2,200  [  3,000,  December  5,  1869. 

$1,700  )  2.500,  January  5,  1870. 

800,  February  5,  1870.  .  , 

800,  March  5,  1870. 
800,  April  5,  1870. 
800,  May  5,  1870. 
800,  June  5,  1870. 


12,500 


The  amounts  inclosed  on  left-hand  margin  above  $600,  $2,200,  $1,700,  are  pay- 
able by  Mr.  Fisher  to  Mr.  Blaine. 

[Sixth  page  of  memorandum  book,  ] 

2.  With  James  M.  Hagar  of  Richmond,  Mr.  Fisher  agrees  to  deliver — 
$6,000  common  stock 
6,000  preferred  stock. 
6,000  land-bonds,  7s. 
7,500  first-mortgage  bonds,  6s. 

All  for  $9,500,  payable— 

$1 ,200  )  $3  000,  November  25,  1869. 

$1,400  [  2.000,  December  5,  1869, 

$900  )  1,500,  January  5,  1870. 

600,  February  5,  1870. 

600,  March  5,  1870. 

600,  April  5,  1870. 

600,  May  5,  1870. 

600.  June  5,  1870. 


9,500 

The  amounts  inclosed  on  left-hand  margin  above,  viz.  :  $1,200,   $1,400,  $900, 
are  payable  by  Mr.  Fisher  to  Mr.  Blaine. 

[Seventh  page  of  memorandum  booh] 

CONTRACT    DELIVERED. 

3.  With  Jeremiah  Prescott,  of  Boston,  Mr.  Fisher  agrees  to  deliver — 
$5,000  common  stock. 
5,000  preferred  stock. 
5,000  land  bonds. 
6,250  first  mortgage  bonds. 
All  for  $6,150,  payable— 
($1,150)  $2,650.  November  15,  1869. 

500,  December  5,  1869. 
500,  January  5,  18.70. 
500,  February  5, 1870. 
500,  March  5,  1870. 
500,  April  5,  1870. 
500,  May  5,  1870. 
500,  June  5,  1870. 


6,150 
The  amount  inclosed  on  left  hand  margin  ($1,150),  is  payable  by  Mr.  Fisher  to 
Mr.  Blaine. 


RECORD    OF   BLAINE.  Ill 

CONTRACT  DELIVERED. 

4.  With  Joseph  A.    Sanborn,  of  East  Readfield,  Me.,  Mr.  Fisher  agrees  to 
deliver — 

$9,000  common  stock. 
9,000  preferred  stock. 
9.000  land  bonds,  7s. 
11,250  first  morgage  bonds. 

All  for  $15,000,  payable  - 

$3,400  )  $7,000,  December  5,  1869. 

$2,600  j"  3,500,  January  5.  1870. 

900,  February  5,  1870. 

900,  March  5,  1870. 

900,  April  5,  1870. 

900,  May  5,  1870. 

900,  June  5,  1870. 


15,000 


The  amount  inclosed  on  the  left  hand  margins  above,  $3,400  $2,600,  are  pay- 
able by  Mr.  Fisher  to  Mr.  Blaine,  as  commissions. 

The  Witness — I  desire  to  say  that  as  to  the  entry  to  the  name  "  Jos.  H. 
Williams,"  that  stock  was  not  delivered  ;  he  made  one  payment,  but  afterward 
withdrew,  and  then  Mr.  Fisher  refunded  him  his  money  ;  and  so,  of  course,  Mr. 
Blaine  was  not  entitled  to  the  $5,000  of  those  bonds,  and  his  amount  was  reduced 
by  that;  he  was  only  entitled  to  $157,000  ;  he  was  to  get  the  $162,000,  but  when 
this  fell  through  it  reduced  his  percentage  ;  this  memorandum  was  made  here 
before  it  was  known  this  man  would  back  out 

By  Mr.  Lawrence  : 

Q.  "  This  man  "  is  the  man  Williams,  whose  name  is  erased  ? 

A.  Yes  ;  it  was  all  figured  out  there,  and  he  had  paid  his  first  instalment,  but 
afterwards  went  out ;  this  memorandum  was  made  upon  the  supposition  that  he 
was  not  going  out ;  this  memorandum  book  contains  an  account  of  all  the  Maine 
bonds  and  explains  itself ;  all  these  bonds  (including  the  bonds  forming  second 
transaction  in  the  memorandum  book)  were  sold  for  so  much  cash  ;  the  parties  got 
so  many  bonds  for  so  much  money.  There  is  the  amount  indicated  in  the  margin, 
which  Mr.  Blaine  got.     At  the  foot  there  is  indicated  the  amount  of  cash  received. 

Q.  I  understand  you  to  say  that  in  this  contract  for  the  sale  of  bonds  on  page  5 
of  the  memorandum  book,  they  were  sold  for  an  instalment  in  cash  amounting  to 
$12,500? 

A.  Yes ;  here  is  the  amount  of  bonds  and  stock  they  got,  and  there  is  the 
amount  of  cash  they  paid  for  it. 

Q.  That  is,  the  amount  of  cash  received  was  $12,500? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  And  out  of  that  $12,500  which  Mr.  Fisher  received,  Mr.  Blaine  got  $600, 
$2,200,  and  $1,700?       , 

A.  Yes. 

(Note. — It  appears  from  the  above  memoranda  of  contracts  that  the  aggregate 
of  the  amounts  thus  agreed  to  be  paid  Mr.  Blaine  was  $162,500  in  bonds  and 
$15,150  in  cash.  The  cash  to  be  paid  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  transactions  numbered  1 
to  4,  appears  to  have  been  an  irregular  amount  ranging  from  18  to  40  per  cent., 
and  in  each  case  equal  to  the  excess  of  the  cash  paid  by  the  buyer  over  the  par 
value  of  the  land  bonds ;  of  the  $43,150  cash  to  be  paid  in  these  last  four  trans- 
actions, it  appears  Mr.  Fisher  was  to  receive  $28,000  for  the  bonds  delivered  and 
Mr.  Blaine  to  receive  $15,150.) 

October  4,  1869.  Mr.  Blaine  called  attention  to  his  ruling  and  its  effects  (see 
letters  VIII  and  IX.) 

February  2,  1870.  A  bill,  which  became  a  law,  was  introduced  into  the 
House,  repealing  the  proviso  of  the  act  of  1869,  which  limited  the  price  at  which 
lands  granted  the  railroad  could  be  sold. 


112  RECORD   OF    BLAINE. 

1871  and  1872.  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  repeatedly  to  Mr.  Fisher  on  the  subject  of 
their  transactions  together. 

September  21,  1872.  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr.  Fisher  had  a  settlement  of  their 
affairs  regarding  railroad  matters,  etc. ,  at  which  time  various  letters  were  given 
back  to  Mr.  Blaine.     (Testimony  of  Mr.  Blaine,  Mis.  Doc.  176,  p.  107.) 

April  24,  1876.  Mr.  Blaine  made  a  personal  explanation  in  the  House  denying- 
any  connection  with  a  transaction  involving  $75,000  L.  R.  and  F.  S.  R.  R.  bonds, 
which  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  had  at  one  time  bought.  In  this  explanation 
Mr.  Blaine  stated  that  he  never  had  one  (bond),  except  at  the  regular  market  price. 
(Cong.  Rec.  44th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.  p.  2725.)    He  said  : 

' '  To  give  a  seeming  corroboration  of  foundation  to  the  story  which  I  have  dis- 
proved, the  absurd  rumor  has  lately  appeared  in  certain  newspapers  that  I  was  the 
owner  of  from  $150,000  to  $250,000  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad 
Bonds,  which  I  received  without  consideration,  and  that  it  was  from  these  bonds 
that  Thomas  A.  Scott  received  his  $75,000.  The  statement  is  gratuitously  and 
utterly  false.     *    *    •*" 

He  further  stated  i 

"  After  the  war  all  the  grants  of  land  previously  made  to  the  Southern  States- 
were  renewed  in  gross  in  the  session  of  1865-66.  The  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Company  again  received  a  grant  from  the  State  and  again  tried  to  raise  money  to 
build  their  road  :  but  1865,  1866,  1867,  passed  without  their  getting  a  dollar. 
Finally,  toward  the  close  of  1868  a  company  of  Boston  gentlemen,  representing 
considerable  capital,  undertook  its  construction.  In  raising  the  requisite  means 
they  placed  the  bonds  of  the  road  on  the  New  England  market  in  the  summer  of 
1869,  offering  them  on  terms  which  seemed  very  favorable  to  the  purchaser,  and 
offering  them  at  a  time  when  investments  of  this  kind  were  fatally  popular.  In 
common  with  hundreds  of  other  people  in  New  England  and  other  parts  of  the 
country,  I  bought  some  of  these  bonds — not  a  very  large  amount — paying  for  them 
at  precisely  the  same  rate  that  others  paid.  I  never  heard  and  do  not  believe  that 
the  Little  Rock  Company — which  I  know  is  controlled  by  highly  honorable  men — 
ever  parted  with  a  bond  to  any  person  except  at  the  regular  price  fixed  for  their 
sale.  *  *  *  Instead  of  receiving  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  road 
as  a  gratuity  I  never  had  one  except  at  the  regular  market  price,  and  that  instead 
of  making  a  large  fortune  out  of  that  company  I  have  incurred  a  severe  pecuniary 
loss  from  my  investment  in  its  securities  which  I  still  retain." 

Compare  contract  of  September  5,  1869,  p. — ,  ante. 

He  further  stated  : 

"  As  to  the  question  of  propriety  involved  in  a  member  of  Congress  holding  an 
investment  of  this  kind,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  lands  were  granted  to  the 
State  of  Arkansas,  and  not  to  the  railroad  company,  and  that  the  company  derived 
its  life,  franchise  and  value  wholly  from  the  State.  And  to  the  State  the  company 
is  amenable  and  answerable,  and  not  in  any  sense  to  Congress." 

See  Act  of  1869,  ante— ,  and  letters  Oct.  4,  1869,  ante— . 

Mulligan's  Character  Sworn  to. 

In  the  brief  history  of  the  Mulligan  letters  here  given,  it  has  not  been  attempted 
to  go  into  the  details  of  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Fisher,  Mr.  Atkins,  Mr.  Blaine,  or 
even  Mr.  Mulligan,  but  enough,  it  is  thought,  has  been  presented  to  give  a  com- 
prehensive view  of  Mr.  Blaine's  transactions  in  regard  to  the  bonds  of  the  Little 
Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Railroad.  The  proof  presented  in  the  letters  of  Mr.  Blaine  and 
in  the  memorandum-book  in  his  own  handwriting,  seems  conclusive  even  without 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  Mulligan.  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  attempt  to  impeach  the  testi- 
mony of  this  important  witness.     Mr.  Fisher  was  asked  : 

Q.  What  is  his  (Mulligan's)  character  ? 

A.  His  character  is  the  best.  I  would  say  it  is  as  good  as,  or  perhaps  better, 
than  that  of  any  man  that  I  ever  knew. 


1 13 

RECORD   OF   BLAINE.  l° 

Q.  What  is  his  reputation  for  truth  and  veracity  ? 

A.  I  never  heard  it  questioned. 

Mr.  Atkins  was  asked  :    What  is  Mr.  Mulligan's  reputation  ? 

A.  I  have  never  heard  anything  against  it. 

Q.  What  is  his  reputation  for  truth  and  veracity? 

A.  I  have  never  doubted  anything  he  said. 

One  of  Blaine's  Side  Speculations. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  are  references  in  some  of  the  letters  to  an  interest  in 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad.  As  throwing  further  light  on  this  part  of  the  sub- 
ject, we  print  here  the  following  interesting  letter  from  Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Fisher 
which  does  not  appear  among  those  read  by  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  House  : 

Augusta,  Me.,  November  25,  1870. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fisher  :  A  year  ago  and  more  I  spoke  to  you  about  purchasing 
an  interest  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  for  yourself  and  any  you  might  choose 
to  associate  with  yourself.  The  matter  passed  by  without  my  being  able  to  control 
it,  and  nothing  more  was  said  about  it.  Since  then  the  Jay  Cooke  contract  has 
been  perfected,  the  additional  legislation  has  been  obtained,  and  230  miles  of  the 
road  are  well-nigh  completed,  and  the  whole  line  will  be  pushed  forward  rapidly. 
By  a  strange  revolution  of  circumstances  I  am  again  able  to  control  an  interest, 
and  if  you  desire  it  you  can  have  it.  The  whole  road  is  divided  into  twenty-four 
shares,  of  which  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  have  twelve.  The  interest  I  speak  of  is  one- 
half  of  one-twenty-fourth,  or  one  one-hundred -and-ninety-second  of  the  entire 
franchise,  being  that  proportion  of  the  eighty-one  millions  of  stock  that  are  being 
divided  as  the  road  is  built,  and  a  like  proportion  of  the  Land  Company  stock  that 
is  formed  to  take  and  dispose  of  the  52,000,000  acres  of  land  covered  by  their  grant 
as  amended  by  their  law  of  last  session.  The  amount  of  stock  which  this  1-192 
would  have  in  the  end  would  be  about  $425,000,  and  the  number  of  acres  of 
land  it  represents  is  nearly  275,000.  The  road  is  being  built  on  the  7.30  bonds, 
$25,000  to  the  mile,  which  Jay  Cooke  takes  at  90.  Instead  of  mortgaging  the 
land,  they  make  a  stock  company  for  its  ownership,  dividing  it  pro  rata  among 
the  holders  of  the  franchise.  The  whole  thing  can  be  had  for  $25,000,  which  is 
less  than  one-third  of  what  some  other  sales  of  small  interest  have  gone  at.  I  do 
not  suppose  you  would  care  to  invest  the  whole  $25,000.  I  thought  for  a  small 
flyer  eight  or  ten  of  you  in  Boston-might  take  it — $2,500  each.  For  $2,500  thus 
invested  you  would  get  ultimately  $42,000  stock  and  the  avails  of  some  27,000 
acres  of  land.     Five  of  you  at  $5,000  each  would  have  a  splendid  thing  of  it. 

The  chance  is  a  very  rare  one.  I  can't  touch  it,  but  I  obey  my  first  and  best 
impulse  in  offering  it  to  you. 

All  such  chances  as  this  since  Jay  Cooke  got  the  road  have  been  accompanied 
with  the  obligation  to  take  a  large  amount  of  the  bonds  at  ninety,  and  hold  them 
not  less  than  three  years.  I  will  be  in  Boston  Tuesday  noon,  and  will  call  upon 
you.  Of  course  if  you  don't  want  it  let  it  pass.  You  will  receive  an  immediate 
issue  of  stock  to  a  considerable  amount,  and  certificates  of  land  stock  also.  Of 
course,  in  conferring  with  others,  keep  my  name  quiet,  mentioning  it  to  no  one 
unless  to  Mr.  Caldwell.  I  write  under  the  presumption  that  you  have  returned. 
But  I  have  heard  nothing.  Yours  truly, 

J.  G.  BLAINE. 

This  offer  was  accepted  by  Fisher,  as  appears  from  the  following  receipt : 
Received  of  Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  $25,000,  in  trust,  in  consideration  of  which 
I  am  to  deliver  to  said  Fisher  properly  authenticated  certificates  of  interest  in 
the  North  Pacific  Railway  Company,  equivalent  to  one-eighth  part  of  one  of 
the  twenty-four  principal  shares  in  which  the  franchise  stock  of  said  company 
are  divided.     Certificates  to  be  in  the  name  of  Elisha  Atkins. 

Witness  my  hand, 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

8 


114 


RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 


The  (N.  Y.)  Evening  Post  on  Blaine. 

The  charges  against  Mr.  Blaine  were  stated  seriatim  by  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Post 
(Rep.): 

The  First  Charge. 

The  first  of  these  charges  is  that  in  the  spring  session  of  Congress  in  1869  a 
bill  was  before  the  House  of  Representatives  which  sought  to  renew  a  land  grant 
to  the  Little  Eock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  of  Arkansas,  in  which  some  of  Mr. 
Blaine's  friends  were  interested ;  that  an  attempt  to  defeat  it  by  an  amendment 
was  made,  and  was  on  the  point  of  being  successful,  and  its  promoters  were  in 
despair ;  that  at  this  juncture  Mr.  Blaine,  being  then  Speaker  of  the  House,  sent  a 
message  to  General  Logan  to  make  the  point  of  order  that  the  amendment  was  not 
germane  to  the  purposes  of  the  bill ;  that  this  point  of  order  was  accordingly 
raised  and  promptly  sustained  by  Mr.  Blaine  as  Speaker,  and  the  bill  was  in  this 
manner  saved  ;  that  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  at  once  to  the  promoters,  calling  attention 
to  the  service  he  had  rendered  them,  and  finally,  after  some  negotiations,  secured 
from  them,  as  a  reward  for  it,  his  appointment  as  selling  agent  of  the  bonds  of 
the  road,  on  commission,  in  Maine,  and  received  a  number  of  such  bonds  as  his 
percentage  ;  that  the  leading  features  of  this  transaction  appeared  in  two  letters  of 
his  afterward  made  public,  dated  respectively  June  29  and  October  4, 1869. 

The  Second  Charge. 

Second — That  he  asserted  at  first  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  with  the  view  of 
covering  up  this  affair,  that  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  road  "  derived  its  life, 
franchise  and  value  wholly  from  the  State,"  and  not  from  Congress,  whereas  the 
evidence  subsequently  taken  by  the  Congressional  Committee  disclosed  the  fact 
that  the  road  derived  the  value  on  which  these  bonds  were  based  from  the  act  of 
Congress  of  which  Mr.  Blaine  secured  the  passage  in  the  manner  above  described 
in  1869  ;  that  he  asserted  on  the  floor  of  the  House  that  the  bonds  he  received 
"were bought  by  him  at  precisely  the  same  rate  as  others  paid,"  whereas  the  evi- 
dence showed  that  the  bonds  came  to  him  as  commissions  on  sales,  which  he  secured 
the  opportunity  of  making  through  his  aid  given  to  the  work  in  Congress,  and  that 
he  solicited  this  agency,  basing  his  request  on  the  aid  so  given,  and  that  he  paid  noth- 
ing whatever  for  the  bonds,  the  consideration  being  his  ruling  as  Speaker  and  his 
subsequent  efforts  to  sell  them.  What  he  did  with  these  bonds,  seventy-five  in 
number,  is  uncertain  ;  but  strong,  though  not  conclusive,  evidence  was  produced 
going  to  show  that  they  were  taken  off  his  hands  at  a  good  price  by  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  (through  the  instrumentality  of  one  Caldwell),which  then  also  was 
in  trouble.  The  investigation  on  this  point  was  never  pushed  home,  owing  to  the 
sudden  illness  which  overtook  Mr.  Blaine  in  1876. 

The  Third  Charge. 

Third — That  Mr.  Blaine,  in  1870,  made  an  offer,  as  appeared  by  his  own 
letters,  to  one  of  his  railroad  friends,  Mr.  Warren  Fisher,  of  Boston,  to  sell  him  a 
half  of  one-twenty-fourth  interest  in  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad,  immediately 
after  Jay  Cooke's  contract  "had  been  perfected  and  the  additional  legislation  had 
been  obtained,"  he  having,  he  said,  come  into  control  of  this  interest,  "by  a 
strange  revolution  of  circumstances  ; "  that  the  amount  of  stock  which  this  would 
represent,  he  said,  would  be  $425,000,  and  the  number  of  acres  of  land  "  nearly 
275,000."  "  The  chance,"  he  said,  "was  a  very  rare  one;  he  couldn't  touch  it," 
but  he  offered  it  to  Mr.  Fisher  for  $25,000  ;  that  Mr.  Fisher  accepted  it  and  paid 
the  money,  but  for  some  unexplained  reason  the  stock  was  never  delivered,  and  Mr. 
Blaine  subsequently  returned  the  amount.  This  transaction  was  a  very  peculiar 
one  for  the  following  reasons  : 

It  appears  from  acts  of  Congress  relating  to  the  road,  none  of  which  are  of 
older  date  than  July  2,  1864,  that  the  authorized  stock  was  $100,000,000,  with  a 
land  grant  estimated  by  the  Commissioners  of  Public  Lands  at  47,000,000  acres,  or 
74,423  square  miles.  The  line  of  the  road  was  2,000  miles  long,  and  at  the  time  of 
Blaine's  letter  to  Fisher  it  was,  he  says,  being  built  on  bonds  at  $25,000  a  mile, 
which  would  have  made  a  bonded  debt  of  $50,000,000.  Mr.  Blaine,  as  member  of 
Congress  and  Speaker  of  the  House,  must  be  taken  to  have  known  about  the  cir- 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE.  115 

cumstances  of  the  road,  and  there,  therefore,  seems  no  escape  from  the  conclusion 
that  his  offer  was  based  on  the  expectation  that  he  would  receive  almost  as  a  gift  a 
share  in  an  enterprise  dependent  for  its  value  on  legislation  in  which  he  had  taken 
part.  Mr.  Blaine's  defense  in  the  case  of  this  transaction  consisted  at  first  of  a 
•denial  that  he  had  ever  had  any  transaction  with  the  road  at  all,  but  he  afterward 
rested  on  the  fact  that  he  had  no  pecuniary  interest  in  the  transfer,  and  that  it  was 
never  actually  made  ;  but  though  this  might  be  a  defense  to  a  suit  against  him  for 
a  conspiracy  to  defraud  purchasers  of  the  stock,  it  does  not  affect  in  any  way  the 
nature  of  the  offer.  His  relations  with  Warren  Fisher  were  in  1870,  as  appeared 
from  the  evidence,  such  that  any  favor  done  the  latter,  or  gift  presented  to  him, 
had  a  direct  pecuniary  value. 

The  Fourth  Charge. 

Fourth — Because  he  obtained  certain  letters,  which  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve contained  matter  gravely  compromising  him,  from  a  perfectly  reputable  wit- 
ness, Mr.  Mulligan,  who  was  the  proper  and  lawful  custodian  of  them,  after  hav- 
ing vainly  applied  appeals  to  his  pity,  by  pledging  his  word  of  honor  to  restore 
them,  then  broke  this  pledge,  retained  them  by  force,  and  subsequently  read  such 
of  them  as  he  pleased  to  the  House  in  aid  of  his  vindication  ;  that  this  conduct,  if 
not  legally  criminal,  was  such  as  no  man  aspiring  to  be  the  chief  magistrate  of  a 
great  nation  ought  to  be  even  suspected  of. 

The  Fifth  Charge. 

Fifth — That  both  his  short  service  as  an  executive  officer  of  the  Government 
and  the  various  efforts  he  has  made  during  the  past  eight  years  to  keep  the  public 
in  mind  of  him,  have  been  sensational  and  theatrical,  indicating  a  strong  love  of 
notoriety  and  an  absence  of  the  settled  convictions,  the  sober  judgment  and  the 
steadiness  of  character  which  are  needed  to  make  him  a  safe  occupant  of  any  high 
or  responsible  administrative  office  ;  and  that  the  means  by  which  his  "booms  "  are 
started  and  promoted,  of  which  the  manner  in  which  his  ' '  history  "  has  recently 
been  heralded  and  produced  is  a  good  example,  bear  too  close  an  approach  to  the 
advertising  devices  of  a  circus  or  other  public  show  to  make  the  candidacy  of  any 
person  resorting  to  them  anything  but  a  humiliation  for  the  party  producing  them. 

The  New  York  Herald  on  Blaine. 

The  N.  Y.  Herald,  of  June  3,  1876,  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the  independent 
press  at  the  time  of  the  exposure  in  the  following  words  : 

No  one  can  doubt,  after  reading  the  evidence  of  that  curious  creature  Mulligan, 
that  Mr.  Blaine  is  not  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  a 
position  as  elevated  as  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  The  nature  of  this 
evidence  has  been  explained  to  our  readers  at  length.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  un- 
derstanding the  exact  position  of  Mr.  Blaine.  By  his  own  words  and  acts,  by  his 
written  letters,  which,  by  suppressing  he  admits  to  be  improper,  he  shows  that  his 
relations  with  a  shameless  gang  of  jobbers  and  swindlers  were  inconsistent  as  a 
severe  guardian  of  the  people's  interest.  We  may  say,  "  shameless  gang  of  jobbers, 
and  swindlers,"  because  the  history  of  our  whole  Pacific  legislation  is  that  of  jobbery 
striving  to  use  the  generosity  of  the  Government  to  further  private  ends.  It  was 
this  legislation  which  enabled  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  to  have  a  law  passed  which 
virtually  robs  the  Government  of  a  hundred,  or,  as  some  say,  two  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  The  men  who  had  any  hand  in  this  gigantic  robbery,  and  for  robbery 
it  was,  deserves  no  mercy  from  the  American  people.  A  part  of  the  Nation's  ven- 
geance was  visited  upon  some  of  them  in  the  resolutions  expelling  and  censuring 
certain  members  and  Senators,  and  in  the  moral  condemnation  which  has  fallen 
upon  others.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  country  should  look  with  suspicious  eyes 
upon  the  arts  of  a  man  as  conspicuous  as  Mr.  Blaine  which  shows  his  connection 
with  any  share  of  that  Pacific  legislation.  Mr.  Blaine  admits  that  in  that  time  of 
wild  legislation  and  general  corruption  he  took  a  prominent  part  not  only  in 
advancing  the  interests  of  such  railways  as  the  Union  and  Northern  Pacific,  but 
also  the  sale  of  their  stock  and  bonds.  He  admits  that  he  made  money  in  this 
manner  out  of  what  was  fairly  due  him  as    '■  commissions."     He  contends, 


116  RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 

naturally  enough,  or  rather  it  is  the  argument  of  his  friends,  that  this  is  his  own 
affair,  with  which  no  Congress  has  any  business,  and  that  because  a  gentleman 
enters  into  public  life  he  does  not  necessarily  deprive  himself  of  every  means  of 
livelihood.  There  would  be  force  in  this  argument  but  for  the  fact  that  the  only 
value  the  stocks  and  bonds  which  Mr.  Blaine  "  earned"  came  from  the  legislation 
of  Congress,  that  for  this  legislation  he  was,  more  than  any  other  member  respon- 
sible, that  by  this  legislation,  as  we  see  by  the  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the 
Treasury  was  robbed.  Mr.  Blaine  can  give  no  explanation  of  his  relations  with 
any  one  of  these  railways  consistent  with  his  duties  as  an  honorable,  self-respecting 
member  of  the  House,  and,  as  our  Washington  correspondent  puts  it,  the 
developments  remove  him  from  any  consideration  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency. 

The  Friend  of  Railroads. 

The  most  important  act  ever  passed  to  check  the  power  of  railroads  and  to 
compel  them  to  fulfill  the  obligations  entered  into  at  their  incorporation,  was  the 
Thurman  act,  approved  May  7,  1878.  This  act  is  of  such  importance  and  the 
interest  affected  by  it  so  vast  that  it  is  here  reproduced  in  full  : 

CHAP.  96. — An  act  to  alter  and  amend  the  act  entitled  "An  act  to  aid  in  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  to  secure  to  the  government  the  use  of  the  same  for  postal, 
military,  and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  July  first,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty -two,  and  also  to  alter  and  amend  the  act  of   Congress,  approved  July 
second,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  in  amendment  of  said  first-named  act. 
Whereas,  on  the  first  day  of  July,  anno  Domini  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
two,  Congress  passed  an  act  entitled  "An  act  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  rail- 
road and  telegraph  line  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  to 
secure  to  the  government  the  use  of  the  same  for  postal,  military,  and  other  pur- 
poses ;  and 

Whereas,  afterward,  on  the  second  day  of  July,  anno  Domini  eighteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four,  Congress  passed  an  act  in  amendment  of  said  first-mentioned 
act ;  and 

Whereas,  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  named  in  said  acts,  and  under 
the  authority  thereof,  undertook  to  construct  a  railway,  after  the  passage  thereof, 
over  some  part  of  the  line  mentioned  in  said  acts  ;  and 

Whereas,  under  the  authority  of  the  said  two  acts,  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  of  California,  a  corporation  existing  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia, undertook  to  construct  a  railway,  after  the  passage  of  said  acts,  over  some 
part  of  the  line  mentioned  in  said  acts ;  and 

Whereas,  the  United  States,  upon  demand  of  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  have  heretofore  issued,  by  way  of  loan,  and  as  provided  in  said  acts,  to 
and  for  the  benefit  of  said  company,  in  aid  of  the  purposes  named  in  said  acts,  the 
bonds  of  the  United  States,  payable  in  thirty  years  from  the  date  thereof,  with 
interest  at  six  per  centum  per  annum,  payable  half-yearly,  to  the  amount  of 
twenty-five  million  eight  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  one  hundred  and 
twenty  dollars,  which  said  bonds  have  been  sold  in  the  market  or  otherwise  dis- 
posed of  by  said  company  ;  and 

Whereas,  the  said  Central  Pacific  Company  has  issued  and  disposed  of  an 
amount  of  its  own  bonds  equal  to  the  amount  so  issued  by  the  United  States,  and 
secured  the  same  by  mortgage,  and  which  are,  if  lawfully  issued  and  disposed  of, 
a  prior  and  paramount  lien,  in  the  respect  mentioned  in  said  acts,  to  that  of  the 
United  States,  at  stated,  and  secured  thereby ;  and 

Whereas,  after  the  passage  of  said  acts,  the  Western  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany, a  corporation  then  existing  under  the  laws  of  California,  did,  under  the 
authority  of  Congress,  become  the  assignee  of  the  rights,  duties,  and  obligations 
of  the  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  as  provided  in  the  act  of  Congress 
passed  on  the  third  of  March,  anno  Domini  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and 
did,  under  the  authority  of  the  said  act  and  of  the  acts  aforesaid,  construct  a  rail- 
road from  the  city  of  San  Jose  to  the  city  of  Sacramento,-  in  California,  and  did 
demand  and  receive  from  the  United  States  the  sum  of  one  million  nine  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  of  the  bonds  of  the  United 
States,  of  the  description  before  mentioned  as  issued  to  the  Central  Pacific  Com- 


RECORD   OF    BLAINE.  117 

party,  and  in  the  same  manner  and  under  the  provisions  of  said  acts  ;  and  upon 
and  in  respect  of  the  bonds  so  issued  to  both  said  companies,  the  United  States 
have  paid  interest  to  the  sum  of  more  than  thirteen  and  a  half  million  dollars, 
which  has  not  been  reimbursed  ;  and 

Whereas,  said  Western  Pacific  Railroad  Company  has  issued  and  disposed  of 
an  amount  of  its  own  bonds  equal  to  the  amount  so  issued  by  the  United  States  to 
it,  and  secured  the  same  by  mortgage,  which  are,  if  lawfully  issued  and  disposed 
of,  a  prior  and  paramount  lien  to  that  of  the  United  States,  as  stated  and  secured 
thereby;  and 

Whereas,  said  Western  Pacific  Railroad  Company  has  since  become  merged  in, 
and  consolidated  with,  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  under  the  name  of 
the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  whereby  the  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  has  become  liable  to  all  the  burdens,  duties,  and  obligations  before  resting 
upon  said  Western  Pacific  Railroad  Company ;  and  divers  other  railroad  compa- 
nies have  been  merged  in  and  consolidated  with  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany ;  and 

Whereas,  the  United  States  upon  the  demand  of  the  said  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road Company,  have  heretofore  issued  by  way  of  loan  to  it  and  as  provided  in 
said  acts,  the  bonds  of  the  United  States,  payable  in  thirty  years  from  the  date 
thereof,  with  interest  at  six  per  centum  per  annum,  payable  half-yearly,  the 
principal  sums  of  which  amount  to  twenty-seven  million  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  thousand  five  hundred  and  twelve  dollars ;  on  which  the  United  States  have 
paid  over  ten  million  dollars  interest  over  and  above  all  reimbursements ;  which 
said  bonds  have  been  sold  in  the  market  or  otherwise  disposed  of  by  said  corpora- 
tion ;  and 

Whereas,  said  corporation  has  issued  and  disposed  of  an  amount  of  its  own 
bonds  equal  to  the  amounts  so  issued  to  it  by  the  United  States  as  aforesaid,  and 
secured  the  same  by  mortgage,  and  which  are,  if  lawfully  issued  and  disposed  of, 
a  prior  and  paramount  lien,  in  the  respect  mentioned  in  said  acts  to  that  of  the 
United  States,  as  stated,  and  secured  thereby  ;  and 

Whereas,  the  total  liabilities  (exclusive  of  interest  to  accrue)  to  all  creditors, 
including  the  United  States,  of  the  said  Central  Pacific  Company,  amount  in  the 
aggregate  to  more  than  ninety-six  million  dollars,  and  those  of  the  said  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  to  more  than  eighty-eight  million  dollars ;  and 

Whereas,  the  United  States,  in  view  of  the  indebtedness  and  operations  of  said 
several  railroad  companies  respectively,  and  of  the  disposition  of  their  respective 
incomes,  are  not  and  cannot,  without  further  legislation,  be  secure  in  their  inter- 
ests in  and  concerning  said  respective  railroads  and  corporations,  either  as  men- 
tioned in  said  acts  or  otherwise  ;  and 

Whereas,  a  due  regard  to  the  rights  of  said  several  companies  respectively,  as 
mentioned  in  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  as  well  as  just  security 
to  the  United  States  in  the  premises,  and  in  respect  of  all  the  matters  set  forth  in 
said  act,  require  that  the  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two  be  altered  and 
amended  as  hereinafter  enacted  ;  and 

Whereas,  by  reason  of  the  premises  also,  as  well  as  for  other  causes  of  public 
good  and  justice,  the  powers  provided  and  reserved  in  said  act  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  for  the  amendment  and  alteration  thereof  ought  also  to  be 
exercised  as  hereinafter  enacted  ;  therefore, 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  net  earnings  mentioned  in  said  act  of 
eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  of  said  railroad  companies  respectively  shall 
be  ascertained  by  deducting  from  the  gross  amount  of  their  earnings,  respectively, 
the  necessary  expenses  actually  paid  within  the  year  in  operating  the  same  and 
keeping  the  same  in  a  state  of  repair,  and  also  the  sum  paid  by  them  respectively 
within  the  year  in  the  discharge  of  interest  on  their  first-mortgage  bonds,  whose 
lien  has  priority  over  the  lien  of  the  United  States,  and  excluding  from  consider- 
ation all  sums  owing  or  paid  by  said  companies  respectively  for  interest  upon  any 
other  portion  of  their  indebtedness ;  and  the  foregoing  provision  shall  be  deemed 
and  taken  as  an  amendment  of  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  as  well 
as  of  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two.  This  section  shall  take  effect  on 
the  thirtieth  day  of  June  next,  and  be  applicable  to  all  computations  of  net  earn- 
ings thereafter  ;  but  it  shall  not  affect  any  right  of  the  United  States  or  of  either  of 
said  railroad  companies  existing  prior  thereto. 

Sec.  2.  That  the  whole  amount  of  compensation  which  may,  from  time  to  time, 


118  RECORD   OF  BLAINE. 

be  due  to  said  several  railroad  companies  respectively  for  services  rendered  for  the 
Government  shall  be  retained  by  the  United  States,  one-half  thereof  to  be  presently 
applied  to  the  liquidation  of  the  interest  paid  and  to  be  paid  by  the  United  States 
upon  the  bonds  so  issued  by  it  as  aforesaid,  to  each  of  said  corporations  severally, 
and  the  other  half  thereof  to  be  turned  into  the  sinking  fund  hereinafter  provided, 
for  the  uses  therein  mentioned. 

Sec.  3.  That  there  shall  be  established  in  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  a 
sinking  fund,  which  shall  be  invested  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  bonds 
of  the  United  States  ;  and  the  semi-annual  income  thereof  shall  be  in  like  manner 
from  time  to  time  invested,  and  the  same  shall  accumulate  and  be  disposed  of  as 
hereinafter  mentioned.  And  in  making  such  investments  the  Secretary  shall 
prefer  the  five  per  centum  bonds  of  the  United  States,  unless  for  good  reasons 
appearing  to  him,  and  which  he  shall  report  to  Congress,  he  shall  at  any  time  deem 
it  advisable  to  invest  in  other  bonds  of  the  United  States.  All  the  bonds  belonging 
to  said  fund  shall,  as  fast  as  they  shall  be  obtained,  be  so  stamped  as  to  show  that 
they  belong  to  said  fund,  and  that  they  are  not  good  in  the  hands  of  other  holders 
than  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  until  they  shall  have  been  indorsed  by  him,  and 
publicly  disposed  of  pursuant  to  this  act. 

Sec.  4.  That  there  shall  be  carried  to  the  credit  of  said  fund  on  the  first  day 
of  February  in  each  year,  the  one-half  of  the  compensation  for  services  hereinbe- 
fore named,  rendered  for  the  Government  by  said  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany, not  applied  in  liquidation  of  interest ;  and  in  addition  thereto,  the  said 
company  shall,  on  said  day  in  each  year,  pay  into  the  Treasury,  to  the  credit  of 
said  sinking  fund,  the  sum  of  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  so 
much  thereof  as  shall  be  necessary  to  make  the  five  per  centum  of  the  net  earn- 
ings of  its  said  road  payable  to  the  United  States  under  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-two,  and  the  whole  sum  earned  by  it  as  compensation  for  services  ren- 
dered for  the  United  States,  together  with  the  sum  by  this  section  required  to  be 
paid,  amount  in  the  aggregate  to  twenty-five  per  centum  of  the  whole  net  earnings 
of  said  railroad  company,  ascertained  and  defined  as  hereinbefore  provided,  for 
the  year  ending  on  the  thirty-first  day  of  December  next  preceding.  That  there 
shall  be  carried  to  the  credit  of  the  said  fund,  on  the  first  day  of  February  in  each 
year,  the  one-half  of  the  compensation  for  services  hereinbefore  named,  rendered 
for  the  Government  by  said  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  not  applied  in 
liquidation  of  interest ;  and,  in  addition  thereto,  the  said  company  shall,  on  said 
day  in  each  year,  pay  into  the  Treasury,  to  the  credit  of  said  sinking  fund,  the 
sum  of  eight  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  or  so  much  thereof  as  shall  be 
necessary  to  make  the  five  per  centum  of  the  net  earnings  of  its  said  road,  payable 
to  the  United  States  under  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  the 
whole  sum  earned  by  it  as  compensation  for  services  rendered  for  the  United 
States,  together  with  the  sum  by  this  section  required  to  be  paid,  amount  in  the 
aggregate  to  twenty -five  per  centum  of  the  whole  net  earnings  of  said  railroad 
company,  ascertained  and  defined  as  hereinbefore  provided,  for  the  year  ending  on 
the  thirty-first  day  of  December  next  preceding. 

Sec  5.  That  whenever  it  shall  be  made  satisfactorily  to  appear  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  by  either  of  said  companies,  that  seventy-five  per  centum  of  its 
net  earnings,  as  hereinbefore  defined,  for  any  current  year,  are  or  were  insufficient  to 
pay  the  interest  for  such  year  upon  the  obligations  of  such  company,  in  respect  of 
which  obligations  there  may  exist  a  lien  paramount  to  that  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  such  interest  has  been  paid  out  of  such  net  earnings,  said  Secretary  is 
hereby  authorized,  and  it  is  made  his  duty,  to  remit  for  such  current  year  so  much 
of  the  twenty-five  per  centum  of  net  earnings  required  to  be  paid  into  the  sinking 
fund,  as  aforesaid,  as  may  have  been  thus  applied  and  used  in  the  payment  of 
interest  as  aforesaid. 

Sec.  6.  That  no  dividend  shall  be  voted,  made,  or  paid  for  or  to  any  stock- 
holder or  stockholders  in  either  of  said  companies  respectively  at  any  time  when 
the  said  company  shall  be  in  default  in  respect  of  the  payment  either  of  the  sums 
required  as  aforesaid  to  be  paid  into  said  sinking  fund,  or  in  respect  of  the  pay- 
ment of  the  said  five  per  centum  of  the  net  earnings,  or  in  respect  of  interest  upon 
any  debt  the  lien  of  which,  or  the  debt  on  which  it  may  accrue,  is  paramount  to 
that  of  the  United  States  ;  and  any  officer  or  person  who  shall  vote,  declare,  make 
or  pay,  and  any  stockholder  of  any  of  said  companies  who  shall  receive  any  such 
dividend  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act,  shall  be  liable  to  the  United  States 
for  the  amount  thereof,  which,  when  recovered,  shall  be  paid  into  said  sinking 


RECORD   OF   BLAINE,  119 

fund.  And  every  such  officer,  person,  or  stockholder  who  shall  knowingly  vote, 
declare,  make,  or  pay  any  such  dividend,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and,  on  conviction  thereof,  shall  be 
punished  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  by  imprisonment  not 
exceeding  one  year. 

Sec.  7.  That  the  said  sinking  fund  so  established  and  accumulated  shall  at 
the  maturity  of  said  bonds  so  respectively  issued  by  the  United  States,  be  applied 
to  the  payment  and  satisfaction  thereof,  according  to  the  interest  and  proportion 
of  each  of  said  companies  in  said  fund,  and  of  all  interest  paid  by  the  United 
States  thereon,  and  not  reimbursed,  subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  next  section. 

Sec.  8.  That  said  sinkingfundso  established  and  accumulated  shall,  according 
to  the  interest  and  proportion  of  said  companies  respectively  therein,  be  held  for 
the  protection,  security,  and  benefit  of  the  lawful  and  just  holders  of  any  mort- 
gage or  lien  debts  of  such  companies  respectively,  lawfully  paramount  to  the 
rights  of  the  United  States,  and  for  the  claims  of  other  creditors,  if  any,  lawfully 
chargeable  upon  the  funds  so  required  to  be  paid  into  said  sinking  fund,  according 
to  their  respective  lawful  priorities,  as  well  as  for  the  United  States,  according  to 
the  principles  of  equity,  to  the  end  that  all  persons  having  any  claim  upon  said 
sinking  fund  may  be  entitled  thereto  in  due  order  ;  but  the  provisions  of  this  sec- 
tion shall  not  operate  or  be  held  to  impair  any  existing  legal  right,  except  in  the 
manner  in  this  act  provided,  of  any  mortgage,  lien,  or  other  creditor  of  any  of 
said  companies  respectively,  nor  to  excuse  any  of  said  companies  respectively  from 
the  duty  of  discharging,  out  of  other  funds,  its  debts  to  any  creditor  except  the 
United  States. 

Sec  9.  That  all  sums  due  to  the  United  States  from  any  of  said  companies 
respectively,  whether  payable  presently  or  not,  and  all  sums  required  to  be  paid  to 
the  United  States  or  into  the  Treasury,  or  into  said  sinking  fund  under  this  act,  or 
under  the  acts  hereinbefore  referred  to,  or  otherwise,  are  hereby  declared  to  be  a 
lien  upon  all  the  property,  estate,  rights  and  franchises  of  every  description  granted 
or  conveyed  by  the  United  States  to  any  of  said  companies  respectively  or  jointly, 
and  also  upon  all  the  estate  and  property,  real,  personal  and  mixed,  assets,  and 
income  of  the  said  several  railroad  companies  respectively,  from  whatever  source 
derived,  subject  to  any  lawfully  prior  and  paramount  mortgage,  lien,  or  claim 
thereon.  But  this  section  shall  not  be  construed  to  prevent  said  companies  respect- 
ively from  using  and  disposing  of  any  of  their  property  or  assets  in  the  ordinary, 
proper  and  lawful  course  of  their  current  business,  in  good  faith  and  for  valuable 
consideration. 

Sec.  10.  That  it  is  hereby  made  the  duty  of  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United 
States  to  enforce,  by  proper  proceedings  against  the  several  railroad  companies 
respectively  or  jointly,  or  against  either  of  them,  and  others,  all  the  rights  of  the 
United  States  under  this  act  and  under  the  acts  hereinbefore  mentioned,  and  under 
any  other  act  of  Congress  or  right  of  the  United  States  ;  and  in  any  suit  or  proceed- 
ings already  commenced,  or  that  may  be  hereafter  commenced  against  any  of  said 
companies,  either  alone  or  with  other  parties,  in  respect  of  matters  arising  under 
this  act,  or  under  the  acts  or  rights  hereinbefore  mentioned  or  referred  to,  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  the  court  to  determine  the  very  right  of  the  matter  without  regard 
to  matters  of  form,  joinder  of  parties,  multifariousness,  or  other  matters  not 
affecting  the  substantial  rights  and  duties  arising  out  of  the  matters  and  acts 
hereinbefore  stated  and  referred  to. 

Sec.  11.  That  if  either  of  the  said  railroad  companies  shall  fail  to  perform  all 
and  singular  the  requirements  of  this  act  and  of  the  acts  hereinbefore  mentioned, 
and  of  any  other  act  relating  to  said  company,  to  be  by  it  performed,  for  the  period 
of  six  months  next  after  such  performance  may  be  due,  such  failure  shall  operate 
as  a  forfeiture  of  all  the  rights,  privileges,  grants,  and  franchises  derived  or 
obtained  by  it  from  the  United  States  ;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Attorney- 
General  to  cause  such  forfeiture  to  be  judicially  enforced. 

Sec  12.  That  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  or  taken  in  any  wise  to 
affect,  or  impair  the  right  of  Congress  at  anytime  hereafter  further  to  alter,  amend, 
or  repeal  the  said  acts  hereinbefore  mentioned  ;  and  this  act  shall  be  subject  to 
alteration,  amendment,  or  repeal,  as  in  the  opinion  of  Congress,  justice  or  the  pub- 
lic welfare  may  require.  And  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  held  to  deny, 
exclude,  or  impair  any  right  or  remedy  in  the  premises  now  existing  in  favor  of  the 
United  States. 

Sec  13.  That  each  and  every  of  the  provisions  in  this  act  contained  shall  sever- 
ally and  respectively  be  deemed,  taken,  and  held  as  in  alteration  and  amendment 


120  RECORD    OF   BLAINE. 

of  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two  and  of  said  act  of  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-four  respectively,  and  of  both  said  acts. 
Approved,  May  7,  1878. 

To  prevent  the  passage  of  this  bill  was  arrayed  the  whole  power  of  the  rail- 
road kings,  Gould,  Huntington,  et  id  omne  genus  ;  the  lobbies  swarmed  with  their 
agents,  and  their  representatives  on  the  floor  by  voice  and  vote  exerted  their  utmost 
energies  to  compass  its  defeat.  Indeed,  Mr.  Gould  was  there  and  in  person  directed 
the  operations  of  the  lobby.  The  cause  of  the  people,  however,  was  in  the  hands 
of  that  great  leader,  Allen  G.  Thurman,  earnestly  aided  by  Mr.  Edmunds,  and  no 
subterfuge  could  blind  and  no  specious  argument  swerve  him  from  the  accomplish- 
ment  of  the  object  in  view. 

Among  those  in  the  Senate  who  most  stoutly  resisted  the  passage  of  the 
Thurman  act  was  James  G.  Blaine.  In  fact,  in  the  long  debate  that  attended  the 
bill,  he  was  the  leader  of  the  opposition. 

In  the  Senate,  April  9,  1878,  Mr.  Blaine  offered  the  following  amendment  to 
the  Pacific  Railroad  Funding  Act : 

But  so  long  as  said  Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Companies 
shall  faithfully  comply  with  the  provisions  of  the  said  acts  of  1862  and  1864,  and 
of  this  act,  relating  to  the  payments  to  the  United  States  on  account  of  the  bonds 
advanced,  and  of  sinking  funds  to  be  established  as  aforesaid,  such  compliance 
shall  be  deemed  and  taken  as  sufficient  to  meet  the  obligations  of  said  companies 
on  account  of  such  bonds  prior  to  the  maturity  thereof. 

Provided,  That  the  annual  payments  from  each  railroad  company,  in  addition  to 
the  half  transportation  account  and  the  five  per  cent,  of  the  net  earnings  presently 
applicable  to  the  interest,  and  the  bonds,  shall  never  be  less  than  $600,000,  includ- 
ing the  other  half  of  the  transportation  account  applicable  to  the  sinking  fund 
herein  established,  and  that  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  to  waive  any 
claim  of  the  United  States  against  either  of  said  railroad  companies,  from  what- 
ever source  arising. 

The  purpose  and  effect  of  this  amendment  was  to  defeat  the  object  of  the  bill  and 
to  nullify  its  salutary  provisions.     This  was  recognized  by  Mr.  Thurman,  who  said  : 

I  consider  this  amendment  as  really  determining  the  fate  of  the  bill. 

The  amendment  of  the  Senator  from  Maine  is  the  worst  attack  upon  the  bill 
that  could  be  made.  He  knows  very  well  that  with  that  provision  fastened  on  to 
this  bill  the  bill  not  only  would  not  be  worth  the  paper  upon  which  it  is  written, 
but  that  it  would  be  far  worse  than  nothing  ;  he  knows  that  that  would  be  a  fatal 
death-blow  given  to  the  bill. 

Mr.  President,  let  no  one  deceive  himself  about  this ;  let  no  one  imagine 
he  can  be  a  friend  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  bill  and  at  the  same  time 
a  friend  of  the  amendment  of  the  Senator  from  Maine.  The  amendment  of 
the  Senator  from  Maine  is  prussic  acid  to  the  bill.  It  cannot  survive  a  day.  nor  an 
hour  perhaps,  after  that  amendment  is  adopted.  It  is  a  stab  at  the  very  heart  of 
the  bill ;  it  is  as  fatal  as  any  stab  could  possibly  be.  I  hope,  therefore,  the  friends 
of  this  bill,  those  who  mean  to  make  these  companies  live  up  to  their  obligations, 
do  what  they  assumed  to  do  ;  those  who  mean  that  these  companies  shall  know 
that  the  Government  is  their  master,  and  they  are  not  the  masters  of  the  Govern- 
ment— will  see  that  no  such  poison  is  taken  into  the  bill  as  the  amendment  of  the 
Senator  from  Maine. 

The  acute  mind  of  Mr.  Edmunds  was  not  deceived.  He  said  : 
He  (Blaine),  as  I  said  before,  is  the  original  father,  there  is  no  grandfather  and 
no  collateral  relation  of  a  proposition  in  the  legislation  of  this  country  of  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  since  the  time  when  the  evil  of  the  hands  of  states  and 
of  congresses  has  been  discovered  in  the  last  few  years,  to  provide  that  in  any 
respect  or  under  any  circumstances  the  hands  of  the  legislative  power  shall  be 
held  off  from  the  exercise  of  their  legitimate  and  constitutional  control  over  public 
corporations.  ******  You  cannot  tell,  sir,  what  will  happen  ;  you  can- 
not tell  who  will  manage  these  corporations  ;  you  cannot  tell  how  long  there  will 
be  any  net  income  or  not,  depending  not  upon  the  fair  progress  of  natural  re 


RECORD   OF   BLAINE.  121 

sources  of  development  and  natural  competition,  but  depending  upon  the  evil 
deviltry  of  stock-boards  and  private  jobs.  There  is  the  trouble  about  all  these  cor- 
porations, and  yet  my  honorable  friend  from  Maine,  in  that  sweet  innocence 
which  characterizes  his  character,  that  sublime  faith  that  everybody  is  as  virtuous 
as  he  is,  is  willing  to  fold  up  his  arms  and  be  tied  up  in  a  bag  by  the  Union  Pacific 
and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Companies  for  twenty-two  years,  merely  because  we 
require  them  to  establish  a  sinking  fund. 

The  amendment  of  Mr.  Blaine  was  defeated — yeas  23,  nays  35. 
The  bill  was  then  passed — yeas  40,  nays  20. 
Mr.  Blaine  voted  "no." 
See  Cong.  Record,  Ap.  2  to  9,  1878. 

That  the  object  of  Mr.  Blaine's  amendment  was  understood  in  California  is 
shown  by  the  following  editorial  : 

[From  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  of  April  10,  1878.] 

The  Railroads  rr\ust  pay. 

The  bill  of  the  Senate  Judiciary  Committee  providing  that  the  Union  and 
and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Companies  shall  each  create  a  sinking  fund,  with 
which  to  finally  liquidate  their  indebtedness  to  the  Government,  passed  the  United 
States  Senate  yesterday,  by  the  decisive  vote  of  40  to  19.  It  passed  without  Blaine's 
amendment,  which  was  intended  to  nullify  its  force,  and  indeed,  without  amend- 
ments of  any  kind.  This  is  the  first  real  and  effective  check  which  the  arrogance 
of  the  railroad  companies  have  yet  received.  Remarkable  as  it  may  seem,  in  this 
era  of  corruption,  neither  sham  nor  compromise  is  embodied  in  this  bill.  It  is  a 
plain,  straightforward,  compulsory  demand  that  these  companies  which  have  grown 
so  enormously  rich  from  the  prodigal  donations  of  the  country,  and  from  their 
oppressive  tariff  exactions,  shall  now  meet  the  obligations  they  have  evaded  so 
long.  The  House  Committee  on  Railroads  has  been  instructed  to  report  a  similar 
bill  which  will  undoubtedly  pass.  Blaine's  amendment  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of 
35  to  23. 

From  the  foregoing  debate  it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  not  without  proper  knowl- 
edge that  Mr.  Edmunds  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Vermont : 

"It  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  Mr.  Blaine  acts  as  the  attorney  of  Jay  Gould. 
"Whenever  Mr.  Thurman  and  I  have  settled  upon  legislation  to  bring  the  Pacific 
railroads  to  terms  of  equity  with  the  Government,  up  has  jumped  James  G.  Blaine, 
musket  in  hand,  from  behind  the  breastworks  of  Gould's  lobby,  to  fire  into  our 
back." 

The  law  thus  treated  of,  having  in  operation  discovered  some  defects,  a  bill  to 
amend  the  Thurman  act  and  correct  its  defects  was  passed  in  the  House  at  the 
last  session,  under  the  leadership  of  Hon.  Phil.  B.  Thompson  of  Kentucky.  The 
Republican  Senate  failed  to  take  any  action  on  it,  as  it  did  on  most  other  measures 
where  the  people  demanded  action  and  the  corporations  desired  delay. 

The  Friend  of  the  Miner. 

The  House  having  under  consideration,  May  17,  1866,  the  bill  to  amend  "an 
act  to  provide  internal  revenue  to  support  the  Government,  to  pay  interest  on  the 
public  debt,  and  for  other  purposes,"  and  acts  amendatory  thereof,  the  following 
debate  was  had : 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

47. — Miners  shall  pay  ten  dollars.  Every  person,  firm  or  company,  who  shall 
employ  others  in  the  business  of  mining  for  coal,  or  for  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead, 
iron,  zinc,  spelter,  or  other  minerals,  not  having  paid  the  tax  therefor,  as  a  manu- 
facturer, and  no  other,  shall  be  regarded  as  a  miner,  under  this  act..  Provided  : 
That  this  shall  not  apply  to  any  miner  whose  receipts  from  his  mine  shall  not 
exceed  annually,  $1,000 


122  RECORD   OF   BLAINE. 

Mr.  Mercur — I  move  to  strike  out  the  words  "employ  others  in "  and  insert 
"carry  on." 

Mr.  Chairman — I  do  not  know  how  it  is  in  the  mines  where  the  precious 
metals  are  procured,  but  in  the  coal  mines  this  phraseology  would  result  disas- 
trously to  the  miners.  "Miner"  is  a  technical  term.  Persons  are  called  miners 
who  have  no  interest  in  the  mines  at  all.  A  is  put  in  with  one  or  two  laborers.  He 
is  called  a  miner,  though  he  has  no  interest  in  the  sale  of  coal.  It  may  be  thought 
the  proviso  to  the  bill  would  exempt  him  from  the  effect  of  this  tax,  but  on  look- 
ing, it  will  be  seen  it  does  not  apply  to  any  person  who  is  a  miner. 

********** 

Mr.  Stevens  (Pa.) — I  move  to  strike  out  the  whole  paragraph. 

Mr.  Chairman — I  do  not  know  how  many  this  would  embrace.  Every  man 
who  mined  limestone  for  his  farm,  every  man  who  mined  a  little  coal  for  his  fur- 
nace, all  these  men,  and'ten  thousand  others  like  them,  would  be  embraced. 

Mr.  Morrill  opposed  the  amendment,  and  Mr.  Bidwell,  in  behalf  of  the  gold 
mines,  favored  it. 

Mr.  Blaine  then  said  : 

I  do  not  think  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  from  the 
Pittsburgh  district  ought  to  prevail. 

I  think  that  during  the  whole  progress  of  this  bill,  with  all  due  respect  to  the 
gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  and  the  gentleman  from  California,  I  have  seen  no 
motion  made  more  groundless  than  this.  We  place  a  tax  upon  every  trade  and 
calling  we  can  find  out,  and  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  miners  in  the  Pennsylvania 
coal  mines  are  infinitely  better  able  to  pay  taxes  than  the  builders,  contractors,  law- 
yers, physicians  and  surgeons. 

******** 

Mr.  Moorehead  (Pa.) — The  receipts  of  these  men  are  not  from  the  mines,  but 
from  labor,  and  the  proposition  really  is  to  tax  labor. 

Mr.  McRuer  (Cal.) — I  wish  to  say  in  reply  to  the  gentleman  from  Maine  (Mr. 
Blaine),  that  there  is  not  a  single  tax  in  this  whole  bill  analogous  to  this.  This  is  a 
direct  tax  upon  the  labor  producing  the  raw  material. 

******** 

Mr.  Kelley  (Pa.) — The  tax  proposed  is  a  direct  tax  upon  wages  and  labor,  at 
least  as  far  as  Pennsylvania  is  concerned. 

It  was  contended  by  Mr.  Morrill,  Mr.  Blaine,  Mr.  Schenck  and  others  that  the 
tax  referred  to  applied  to  employer  of  miners.  On  this  point,  Mr,  Hooper  said  : 
"  I  hold  here  in  my  hand  a  petition  from  some  fifty  laboring  miners,  who  state 
that  the  tax  of  ten  dollars  is  imposed  upon  them,  because  by  the  custom  of  mining 
coal  it  is  usual  for  a  miner  to  have  with  him  a  laborer,  the  miner  being  pai^l  so 
much  a  ton  for  the  coal  he  raises,  out  of  which  he  pays  the  laborer.  The  assessor 
claims  that  the  miner  employs  others,  and  charges  him  with  the  tax  of  ten  dollars." 

Subsequently,  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Stevens  was  agreed  to  by  a  vote  of  ayes 
57,  noes  38,  and  the  paragraph  was  stricken  out.  (Cong.  Globe,  vol.  58,  p.  2657, 
1st  Sess.,  39  Cong.) 


A   RETURN   TO    CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS.  123 


A  Return  to  Constitutional  Methods. 


Democratic  Principles. 

A  strict  adherence  to  the  Constitution  is  the  leading  principle  of  the  Democratic 
party — a  party  whose  theory  of  construction  gave  it  birth  and  has  preserved  it  in 
the  affections  of  the  people  for  nearly  one  hundred  years. 

In  Washington's  Cabinet  there  was  a  continual  conflict  of  opinion  between  the 
aristocratic  Hamilton,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  the  democratic  Jeffer- 
son, then  Secretary  of  State,  about  the  construction  of  the  new  Constitution.  The 
former  advocated  a  loose  construction  and  strong  central  power  ;  the  latter,  strict 
construction  and  local  self-government. 

From  these  rivalries  sprang  into  existence  the  two  great  rival  parties  which,, 
under  one  name  and  another,  have  continued  to  the  present  day. 

The  difference  is  fundamental  and  eternal.  It  is  well  described  by  De  Tocque- 
vill  in  his  work  on  Democracy  in  America,  as  follows  : 

De  Tocquevill's  Definition. 

"  When  the  war  of  independence  was  terminated,  and  the  foundations  of  the  new 
government  were  to  be  laid  down,  the  nation  was  divided  between  two  opinions— two- 
opinions  which  are  as  old  as  the  world  and  which  are  perpetually  to  be  met  with,  under 
different  forms  and  various  names  in  all  free  communities — the  one  tending  to  limit,  the 
other  to  extend  indefinitely  the  power  of  the  people." 

Temporary  questions,  such  as  slavery,  knownothingism,  a  foreign  war,  etc.,, 
may  distract  attention  from  the  main  issue  and  even  change  party  names,  but  when 
disposed  of  the  fundamental  rivalry  between  local  and  central  power  is  bound  to 
return.  It  is  well  that  it  does,  for  the  discussion  of  rival  theories  of  construction 
tends  to  keep  the  people  educated  in  the  principles  of  civil  liberty  and  government 

Such  a  discussion  was  never  more  needed  than  to-day  for  the  Republican  party 
continues  in  time  of  peace  a  war  construction  of  the  Constitution — a  drift  toward 
centralization  which,  if  not  soon  checked,  will  verge  upon  imperialism. 

The  American  people  should  therefore  in  the  present  campaign  go  back  to  first 
principles  and  closely  scrutinize  the  tendencies  of  the  two  rival  parties. 

The  Democratic  party  inherits  its  love  of  local  and  personal  liberty  from  its 
founder,  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  its  construction  of  the  Constitution  from  that 
greatest  of  all  authorities,  James  Madison. 

Madison's  I\ules  of  Constitutional  Construction. 

His  construction  as  given  in  the  Federalist  (No.  38)  is  as  follows  : 

"First — In  order  to  ascertain  the  real  character  of  the  government,  it  may  be 
considered  in  relation  to  the  foundation  on  which  it  is  to  be  established;  to  the  sources 
from  which  its  ordinary  powers  are  to  be  drawn ;  to  the  operation  of  those  powers ;  to  the 


124  A   RETURN   TO   CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS. 

extent  of  them,  and  t€»  the  authority  by  which  future  changes  in  the  government  are  to 
be  introduced. 

"  On  examining  the  first  relation,  it  appears,  on  one  hand,  that  the  Constitution  is  to 
be  founded  on  the  assent  and  ratification  of  the  people  of  America,  given  by  deputies 
elected  for  the  special  purpose;  but,  on  the  other,  that  this  assent  and  ratification  is  to  be 
given  by  the  people,  not  as  individuals  composing  one  entire  nation,  but  as  composing 
the  distinct  and  independent  States  to  which  they  respectively  belong.  It  is  to  be  the 
assent  and  ratification  of  the  several  States,  derived  from  the  supreme  authority  of  each 
•State — the  authority  of  the  people  themselves.  The  act,  therefore,  establishing  the 
Constitution  will  not  be  a  national,  but  a  federal  act. 

"That  it  will  be  a  federal  and  not  a  national  act,  as  these  terms  are  understood  by 
the  objectors,  the  act  of  the  people,  as  forming  so  many  independent  States,  not  as  form- 
ing one  aggregate  nation,  is  obvious  from  this  single  consideration,  that  it  is  to  result 
neither  from  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  Union,  nor  from 
that  of  a  majority  of  the  States.  It  must  result  from  the  unanimous  assent 
•of  the  several  States  that  are  parties  to  it,  differing  no  otherwise  from  their  ordi- 
nary assent  than  in  its  being  expressed  not  by  the  legislative  authority,  but  by  that  of 
the  people  themselves.  Were  the  people  regarded  in  this  transaction  as  forming  one 
nation,  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States  would  bind  the 
minority  in  the  same  manner  as  the  majority  in  each  State  must  bind  the  minority;  and 
the  will  of  the  majority  must  be  determined  either  by  a  comparison  of  the  individual 
votes,  or  by  considering  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  States  as  evidence  of  the  will  of  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Neither  of  these  rules  has  been  adopted. 
Each  State,  in  ratifying  the  Constitution,  is  considered  as  a  sovereign  body,  independent 
of  all  others,  and  only  to  be  bound  by  its  own  voluntary  act.  In  this  relation,  then,  the 
new  Constitution  will,  if  established,  be  a  federal  and  not  a  national  constitution. 

"  The  next  relation  is  to  the  sources  from  which  the  ordinary  powers  of  government  are 
to  be  derived.  The  House  of  Representatives  will  derive  its  powers  from  the  people  of 
America  ;  and  the  people  will  be  represented  in  the  same  proportion  and  on  the  same 
principle  as  they  are  m  the  Legislature  of  a  particular  State.  So  far  the  Government  is 
national,  not  federal.  The  Senate,  on  the  other  hand,  will  derive  its  powers  from  the 
States,  as  political  and  coequal  societies,  and  these  will  be  represented  on  the  principle  of 
equality  in  the  Senate  as  they  now  are  in  the  existing  Congress.  So  far  the  Government 
is  federal,  not  national.  The  executive  power  will  be  derived  from  a  very  compound 
source.  The  immediate  election  of  the  President  is  to  be  made  by  the  States  in  their 
political  characters.  The  votes  allotted  to  them  are  in  a  compound  ratio,  which  con- 
siders them  partly  as  distinct  and  coequal  societies,  partly  as  unequal  members  of  the 
same  society.  The  eventual  election,  again,  is  to  be  made  by  that  branch  of  the  Legis- 
lature which  consists  of  the  national  Representatives  ;  but  in  this  particular  act  they  are 
to  be  thrown  into  the  form  of  individual  delegations  from  so  many  distinct  and  coequal 
bodies-politic.  From  this  aspect  of  the  Government  it  appears  to  be  of  a  mixed  character, 
presenting  at  least  as  many  federal  as  national  features. 

:"  The  difference  between  a  federal  and  national  government,  as  it  relates  to  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Government,  is  by  the  adversaries  of  the  plan  of  the  convention  supposed  to 
consist  in  this,  that  in  the  former  the  powers  operate  on  the  political  bodies  composing 
the  confederacy,  in  their  political  capacities  ;  in  the  latter,  on  the  individual  citizens 
composing  the  nation,  in  their  individual  capacities.  On  trying  the  Constitution  by  this 
criterion,  it  falls  under  the  national,  not  the  federal  character  ;  though  perhaps  not  so 
completely  as  has  been  understood.  In  several  cases,  and  particularly  in  the  trial  of 
controversies  to  which  States  may  be  parties,  they  must  be  viewed  and  proceeded  against 
in  their  collective  and  political  capacities  only.  But  the  operation  of  the  Government  on 
the  people,  in  their  individual  capacities,  in  its  ordinary  and  most  essential  proceedings, 
may,  on  the  whole,  designate  it  in  this  relation  a  national  government. 

"But  if  the  Government  be  national  with  regard  to  the  operation  of  its  powers,  it 
changes  its  aspect  again  when  we  contemplate  it  in  relation  to  the  extent  of  its  powers. 
The  idea  of  a  national  government  involves  in  it  not  only  an  authority  over  the  individual 
citizens,  but  an  indefinite  supremacy  over  all  persons  and  things,  so  far  as  they  are 
objects  of  lawful  government.  Among  a  people  consolidated  into  one  nation  this 
supremacy  is  completely  vested  in  the  National  Legislature.  Among  communities 
united  for  particular  purposes  it  is  vested  partly  in  the  general  and  partly  in  the  muni- 
cipal legislatures.  In  the  former  case,  all  local  authorities  are  subordinate  to  the 
supreme,  and  may  be  controlled,  directed,  or  abolished  by  it  at  pleasure.  In  the  latter, 
the  local  or  municipal  authorities  form  distinct  and  independent  portions  of  the  suprem- 
acy, no  more  subject,  within  their  respective  spheres,  to  the  general  authority  than  the 
general  authority  is  subject  to  them  within  its  own  sphere.  In  this  relation,  then,  the 
proposed  government  cannot  be  deemed  a  national  one,  since  its  jurisdiction  extends  to 


A    RETURN    TO    CONSTITUTIONAL 'METHODS.  12& 

certain  enumerated  objects  only  and  leaves  to  the  several  States  a  residuary  and  invio- 
lable sovereignty  over  all  other  objects.  It  is  true  that  in  controversies  relating  to  the 
boundary  between  the  two  jurisdictions,  the  tribunal  which  is  ultimately  to  decide  is  to 
be  established  under  the  General  Government.  But  this  does  not  change  the  principle 
of  the  case.  The  decision  is  to  be  impartially  made,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  all  the  usual  and  most  effectual  precautions  are  taken  to  secure  this 
impartiality.  Some  such  tribunal  is  clearly  essential  to  prevent  an  appeal  to  the  sword 
and  a  dissolution  of  the  compact  ;  and  that  it  ought  to  be  established  under  the  general 
rather  than  under  the  local  governments,  or,  to  speak  more  properly,  that  it  could  be 
safely  established  under  the  first  alone,  is  a  position  not  likely  to  be  combated. 

"If  we  try  the  Constitution  by  its  last  relation  to  the  authority  by  which  amendments 
are  to  be  made,  we  find  it  neither  wholly  national  nor  wholly  federal.  Were  it  wholly 
national,  the  supreme  and  ultimate  authority  would  reside  in  the  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  Union  ;  and  this  authority  would  be  competent  at  all  times  like  that  of  a  majority 
of  every  national  society,  to  alter  or  abolish  its  established  government.  Were  it  wholly 
federal  on  the  other  hand,  the  concurrence  of  each  State  in  the  Union  would  be  essential 
to  every  alteration  that  would  be  binding  on  all.  The  mode  provided  by  the  plan  of 
the  convention  is  not  founded  on  either  of  these  principles.  In  requiring  more  than  a 
majority,  and  particularly  in  computing  the  proportion  by  States,  not  by  citizens,  it 
departs  from  the  national  and  advances  toward  the  federal  character.  In  rendering  the 
concurrence  of  less  than  the  whole  number  of  States  sufficient,  it  loses  again  the  federal 
and  partakes  of  the  national  character. 

"  The  proposed  constitution,  therefore,  even  when  tested  by  the  rules  laid  down  by 
its  antagonists,  is,  in  strictness,  neither  a  national  nor  a  federal  constitution,  but  a  com- 
position of  both.  In  its  foundation  it  is  federal  not  national  ;  in  the  sources  from  which 
the  ordinary  powers  of  the  government  are  drawn,  it  is  partly  federal  and  partly  national; 
in  the  operation  of  these  powers  it  is  national,  not  federal  ;  in  the  extent  of  them  again 
it  is  federal,  not  national ;  and  finally  in  the  authoritative  mode  of  introducing  amend- 
ments it  is  neither  wholly  federal  nor  wholly  national.  " 

Justice  Field's  Protest  against  Centralization. 

The  Democratic  distinction  between  State  and  central  power  was  recently  and 
ably  stated  by  that  distinguished  Democratic  jurist,  Justice  Field,  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court.     In  a  dissenting  opinion,  he  said  : 

"The  government  created  by  the  Constitution  was  not  designed  for  the  regulation  of 
matters  of  purely  local  concern.  The  States  required  no  aid  from  any  external  authority 
to  manage  their  domestic  affairs.  They  were  fully  competent  to  provide  for  the  due 
administration  of  justice  between  their  own  citizens  in  their  own  courts,  and  they  needed 
no  directions  in  that  matter  from  any  other  government,  any  more  than  they  needed 
directions  as  to  their  highways  and  schools,  their  hospitals  and  charitable  institutions, 
their  public  libraries,  or  the  magistrates  they  should  appoint  for  their  towns  and  counties. 
It  was  only  for  matters  which  concerned  all  the  States,  and  which  could  not  be  managed 
by  them  in  their  independent  capacity,  or  managed  only  with  great  difficulty  and 
embarrassment,  that  a  general  and  common  government  was  desired.  Whilst  they 
retained  control  of  local  matters,  it  was  felt  necessary  that  matters  of  general  and  com- 
mon interest,  which  they  could  not  wisely  and  efficiently  manage,  should  be  entrusted  to 
a  central  authority.  And  so  to  the  common  government  which  grew  out  of  this  prevail- 
ing necessity  was  granted  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  external  affairs,  including  the  great 
powers  of  declaring  war,  making  peace  and  concluding  treaties  ;  but  only  such  powers 
of  internal  regulation  were  conferred  as  were  essential  to  the  successful  and  efficient 
working  of  the  government  established  ;  to  facilitate  intercourse  and  commerce  between 
the  people  of  the  different  States,  and  secure  to  them  equality  of  protection  in  the  several 

States. 

********* 

"When  the  government  of  the  confederation  failed,  chiefly  through  the  want  of  all 
coercive  authority  to  carry  into  effect  its  measures,  its  power  being  only  that  of  recom- 
mendation to  the  States,  and  the  present  Constitution  was  adopted,  the  same  general 
ends  were  sought  to  be  attained,  namely,  the  creation  of  a  central  government,  which 
would  take  exclusive  charge  of  all  our  foreign  relations,  representing  the  people  of  all 
the  States  in  that  respect  as  one  nation,  and  would  at  the  same  time  secure  at  home  free- 
dom of  intercourse  between  the  States,  equality  of  protection  to  citizens  of  each  State  in 
the  several  States,  uniformity  of  commercial  regulations,  a  common  currency,  a  standard 
of  weights  and  measures,  one  postal  system,  and  such  other  matters  as  concerned  all  the 
States  and  their  people. 


126  A  RETURN*  TO   CONSTITUTIONAL  METHODS. 

Accordingly,  the  new  government  was  invested  with  powers  adequate  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  these  purposes,  with  which  it  could  act  directly  upon  the  people,  and  not  by 
recommendation  to  the  States,  and  enforec  its  measures  through  tribunals  and  officers  of 
its  own  creation.  There  were  also  restraint  placed  upon  the  action  of  the  States  to  pre- 
vent interference  with  the  authority  of  the  new  government  and  to  secure  to  all  persons 
protection  against  punishment  by  legislative  decree,  and  insure  the  fulfillment  of  contract 
obligations.  But  the  control  of  matters  of  purely  local'  concern,  not  coming  within  the 
scope  of  the  powers  granted  or  the  restraints  mentioned  was  left,  where  it  had  always 
existed,  with  the  States.  The  new  government  being  one  of  granted  powers,  its  author- 
ity was  limited  by  them  and  such  as  were  necessarily  implied  for  their  execution.  But 
lest  from  a  misconception  of  their  extent  these  powers  might  be  abused,  the  tenth  amend- 
ment was  at  an  early  day  adopted,  declaring  that  '  the  powers  not  delegated  to  the 
United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the 
States  respectively  or  to  the  people.' 

Now,  if  we  look  into  the  Constitution  we  shall  not  find  a  single  word  from  its  opening 
to  its  concluding  line,  nor  in  any  of  the  amendments  in  force  before  the  close  of  the  civil 
war,  nor,  as  I  shall  hereafter  endeavor  to  show,  in  those  subsequently  adopted,  which 
authorizes  any  interference  by  Congress  with  the  States  in  the  administration  of  their 
governments,  and  the  enforcement  of  their  laws  with  respect  to  any  matter  over  which 
jurisdiction  was  not  surrendered  to  the  United  States.  The  design  of  its  framers  was  not 
to  destroy  the  States,  but  to  form  a  more  perfect  union  between  them,  and  whilst  creating 
a  central  government  for  certain  great  purposes,  to  leave  to  the  States  in  all  matters,  the 
jurisdiction  of  which  was  not  surrendered,  the  functions  essential  to  separate  and  independ- 
ent existence.  And  so  the  late  Chiet  Justice,  speaking  for  the  court  in  1869,  said  :  'Not 
only,  therefore,  can  there  be  no  loss  of  separate  and  independent  autonomy  to  the  States, 
through  their  union  under  the  Constitution,  but  it  may  not  be  unreasonably  said  that  the 
preservation  of  the  States,  and  the  maintenance  of  their  governments,  are  as  much  within 
the  design  and  care  of  the  Constitution  as  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  National  Government,'  and  then  he  adds,  in  that  striking  language  which 
gives  to  an  old  truth  new  force  and  significance,  that  '  the  Constitution,  in  all  its  pro- 
visions, looks  to  an  indestructible  Union  composed  of  indestructible  States. '  " 

Horatio  Seymour  on  State  and  Federal  Powers. 

Another  and  admirable  statement  of  our  theory  of  government  was  given  by 
that  great  Democratic  statesman,  Ex-Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  in  an  arti- 
cle entitled  "  The  Government  of  the  United  States,"  published  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Review  in  1878.     We  quote  from  it  as  follows  : 

"  Let  us  place  ourselves  where  our  fathers  stood  when  they  worked  out  our  political 
system,  and  thus  learn  what  they  meant  to  do.  A  people  thinly  scattered  over  a  conti- 
nent, living  under  opposite  conditions  of  climate,  production  and  domestic  habits,  were  to 
be  united  for  purposes  of  common  defense  and  welfare.  This  could  only  be  done  by 
securing  to  each  section  of  a  vast  region  laws  which  would  promote  the  prosperity  of  every 
part.  Where  was  the  wisdom  to  frame  the  laws  to  meet  the  wants  so 
diversified  and  conflicting  ?  They  knew  from  experience  that  kings,  lords, 
and  commons,  could  not  do  it.  Their  failures  led  to  the  revolution.  They  claimed  no 
wisdom  superior  to  that  of  Parliament,  for  that  was  the  period  when  a  host  of  orators 
and  statesmen  made  Parliament  glorious  in  British  annals.  The  colonies  were  practically 
as  remote  from  each  other  as  from  Britain,  when  obstacles  to  intercourse  were  taken 
into  account.  The  necessities  of  the  case  forced  our  fathers  to  frame  their  State  and  gen- 
eral governments  upon  principles  the  reverse  of  those  which  usually  mark  the  polity  of 
nations.  Their  theory  takes  away  control  from  political  centers,  and  distributes  it  to  the 
various  points  that  are  most  interested  in  its  wise  and  honest  exercise.  It  keeps  at  every 
man's  home  the  greatest  share  of  the  political  power  that  concerns  him  individually.  It 
yields  it  to  the  remoter  legislative  bodies  in  diminishing  proportions  as  they  recede  from 
the  direct  influence  and  action  of  the  people.  The  local  self-government  under  which  our 
•country  is  expanding  itself  over  a  continent,  without  becoming  weak  by  its  extension,  is 
founded  on  these  propositions.  That  government  is  most  wise  which  is  in  the  hands  of 
those  best  informed  about  the  particular  questions  on  which  they  legislate  ;  most 
economical  and  honest,  when  controlled  by  those  most  interested  in  preserving  frugality 
and  virtue  ;  most  strong  when  it  only  exercises  authority  which  is  beneficial  in  its  action 
to  the  governed.  These  are  obvious  truths,  but  how  are  they  to  be  made  available  for 
practical  purposes  ?  It  is  in  this  that  the  wisdom  of  our  institutions  consists.  In  their 
progress,  they  are  developing  truths  in  government  which  have  not  only  disappointed 
the  hopes  of  our  enemies,  but  dissipated  the  fears  of  our  friends. 


A   RETURN   TO   CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS.  127 

"The  good  order  of  society,  the  protection  of  our  lives  and  our  property,  the  pro- 
motion of  religion  and  learning,  the  enforcement  of  statutes,  or  the  upholding  of  the 
unwritten  laws  of  just  moral  restraints  mainly  depend  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  townships.  Upon  such  questions,  so  far  as  they  particularly  concern  them,  the 
people  of  the  towns  are  more  intelligent  and  more  interested  than  those  outside  of  their 
limits  can  be.  The  wisest  statesmen  living  and  acting  at  the  city  of  Washington  cannot 
understand  these  affairs,  nor  can  they  conduct  them  so  well  as  the  citizens  upon  the 
ground,  although  they  may  be  unlearned  men.  What  is  true  of  one  town  is  true  of  the 
other  ten  thousand  towns  in  the  United  States.  When  we  shall  have  twenty  thousand 
towns,  this  system  of  government  will  in  no  degree  become  overloaded  or  complicated.  There 
will  be  no  more  then  for  each  citizeu  to  do  than  now.  Our  town  officers  in  the  aggregate 
are  more  important  than  Congressmen  or  Senators.  Hence  the  importance  to  our 
government  of  religion,  morality,  and  education,  which  enlighten  and  purify  the 
governed  and  the  governors  at  the  same  time,  and  which  must  ever  constitute  the  best 
securities  for  the  advancement  and  happiness  of  our  country.  Township  powers  and 
duties  educate  and  elevate  those  who  exercise  them.  The  next  organizations  in  order 
and  importance  are  boards  of  county  officers,  who  control  questions  of  a  local  character, 
but  affecting  a  greater  number  than  the  inhabitants  of  single  towns.  The  people  of  each 
county  are  more  intelligent  and  more  interested  in  what  concerns  their  own  affairs  than 
any  amount  of  wisdom  or  of  patriotism  outside  of  it.  The  aggregate  transactions  of  county 
officers  are  more  important  than  those  of  our  State  Legislatures.  When  we  have 
secured  good  government  in  towns  and  counties,  most  of  the  objects  of  government  are 
gained.  In  the  ascending  scale  of  rank,  in  the  descending  scale  of  importance,  is  the 
Legislature,  which  is  or  should  be  limited  to  State  affairs.  Its  greatest  wisdom  is  shown 
by  the  smallest  amount  of  legislation,  and  its  strongest  claims  for  gratitude  grow  out  of 
what  it  does  not  do.  Our  general  government  is  remarkable  for  being  the  reverse  of 
every  other.  Instead  of  being  the  source  of  authority,  it  only  receives  the  remnant  of 
power  after  all  that  concerns  town,  county,  and  state  jurisdictions  has  been  distributed. 
Its  jurisdiction,  although  confined  within  narrow  limits,  is  of  great  dignity,  for  it  con- 
cerns our  national  honor  and  provides  for  the  national  defense.  We  make  this  head  of 
our  system  strong  when  we  confine  its  action  to  those  objects  which  are  of  general  inter- 
est, and  prevent  its  interference  with  subjects  upon  which  it  cannot  act  with  intelligence. 
If  our  general  government  had  the  power  which  is  now  divided  between  town,  county 
and  State  jurisdiction,  its  attempts  at  their  exercise  would  shiver  it  into  atoms.  If  it  were 
composed  of  the  wisest  and  purest  men  the  world  ever  saw,  it  could  not  understand  all 
the  varied  interests  of  a  land  as  wide  as  all  Europe,  and  with  as  great  a  diversity  of 
climate,  soil  and  social  condition.  The  welfare  of  the  several  communities  would  be 
sacrificed  to  the  ignorance  or  prejudices  of  those  who  had  no  direct  concern  in  the  laws 
they  imposed  upon  others. 

"  The  theory  of  self-government  is  not  founded  upon  the  idea  that  the  people  are 
necessarily  virtuous  and  intelligent,  but  it  attempts  to  distribute  each  particular 
power  to  those  who  have  the  greatest  interest  in  its  wise  and  faithful  exercise.  Such  dis- 
tribution is  founded  on  the  principle  that  persons  most  interested  in  any  matter  manage 
it  better  than  wiser  men  who  are  not  interested.  Men  act  thus  in  their  private  concerns. 
When  we  are  sick,  we  do  not  seek  the  wisest  man  in  the  community,  but  the  physician 
who  is  best  acquainted  with  our  disorder  and  its  remedies.  If  we  wish  to  build,  we  seek 
not  the  most  learned  man,  but  the  man  most  skillful  in  the  kind  of  structure  we  desire  to 
erect,  and  if  we  require  the  services  of  an  agent,  the  one  is  best  for  us  who  is  best 
acquainted  with  our  wants,  and  most  interested  in  satisfying  them.  The  Bible  intimates 
this  course  when  it  says  that  a  man  can  judge  better  in  relation  to  his  own  affairs  than 
seven  watchmen  on  a  high  tower.  This  principle  not  only  secures  good  government 
for  each  locality,  but  it  also  brings  home  to  each  individual  a  sense 
of  his  rights  and  responsibilities  ;  it  elevates  his  character  as  a  man  ;  he  is  taught  self- 
reliance  ;  he  learns  that  the  performance  of  his  duty  as  a  citizen  is  the  corrective  for  the 
evils  of  society,  and  is  not  led  to  place  a  vague,  unfounded  dependence  upon  legislative 
wisdom.  It  not  only  makes  good  government,  but  it  also  makes  good  manhood. 
Under  European  governments  but  few  feel  that  they  can  exert  any  influence  upon  public 
morals  or  affairs;  here  every  one  knows  that  his  character  and  conduct  will  at  least  af- 
fect the  character  of  the  town  in  which  he  lives.  While  the  interests  of  each  section  are 
thus  secured,  and  the  citizen  is  educated  by  duties,  the  general  government  is  strength- 
ened and  made  enduring  by  lifting  it  above  invidious  action,  and  making  it  the  point 
about  which  rally  the  affections  and  pride  of  the  American  people,  as  the  exponent  to  the 
world  at  large  of  our  common  power,  dignity,  and  nationality.  " 


128  A   RETURN   TO    CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS. 

Republican  Tendencies. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  theory  of  government  as  above  defined  by  the 
great  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party  is  the  centralization  tendency  of  its  Repub- 
lican rival.  That  party  inherits  much  of  the  objectionable  doctrines  which 
Hamilton  advocated  in  the  Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution,  but 
which,  fortunately,  were  not  stamped  upon  that  instrument. 

Hamilton's  Theory  of  Government. 

In  Madison's  notes  on  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention,  he  reports  the 
substance  of  one  of  Hamilton's  speeches  as  follows  : 

"The  general  power,  whatever  be  its  form,  if  it  preserves  itself,  must  swallow  up  the 
State  powers,  otherwise  it  will  be  swallowed  up  by  them.  It  is  against  all  the  principles 
of  a  good  government  to  vest  the  requisite  powers  in  such  a  body  as  Congress.  Two 
sovereignties  cannot  exist  within  the  same  limits.  Giving  powers  to  Congress  must 
eventuate  in  a  bad  government,  or  in  no  government.  The  plan  of  New  Jersey,  there- 
fore, will  not  do.  What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  Here  he  was  embarrassed.  The  extent 
of  the  country  to  be  governed  discouraged  him.  The  expense  of  a  general  government 
was  also  formidable  ;  unless  there  were  such  a  diminution  of  expense  on  the  side  of  the 
State  governments  as  the  case  would  admit.  If  they  were  extinguished,  he  was  persuaded 
that  great  economy  might  be  obtained  by  substituing  a  general  government.  He  did 
not  mean,  however,  to  shock  the  public  opinion  by  proposing  such  a  measure.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  saw  no  other  necessity  for  declining  it.  They  are  not  necessary  for  any 
of  the  great  purposes  of  commerce,  revenue,  or  agriculture.  Subordinate  authorities,  he 
was  aware,  would  be  necessary.  There  must  be  district  tribunals  ;  corporations  for  local 
purposes.  But  cui  bono  the  vast  and  expensive  apparatus  now  appertaining  to  the  States  ? 
The  only  difficulty  of  a  serious  nature  which  occurred  to  him,  was  that  of  drawing  repre- 
sentatives from  the  extremes  to  the  centre  of  the  community.  What  inducements  can  be 
offered  that  will  suffice  ?  The  moderate  wages  for  the  first  branch  could  only  be  a  bait 
to  little  demagogues.  Three  dollars,  or  thereabouts,  he  supposed,  would  be  the  utmost. 
The  Senate,  he  feared,  from  a  similar  cause,  would  be  filled  by  certain  undertakers,  who 
wish  for  particular  offices  under  the  government. 

"  This  view  of  the  subject  almost  led  him  to  despair  that  a  republican  government  could 
be  established  over  so  great  an  extent.  He  was  sensible  at  the  same  time,  that  it  would 
be  unwise  to  propose  one  of  any  other  form.  In  his  private  opinion,  he  had  no  scruple 
in  declaring,  supported  as  he  was  by  the  opinion  of  so  many  of  the  wise  and  good,  that 
the  British  government  was  the  best  in  the  world  ;  and  that  he  doubted  much  whether 
anything  short  of  it  would  do  in  America.  He  hoped  gentlemen  of  different  opinions 
would  bear  with  him  in  this,  and  begged  them  to  recollect  the  change  of  opinion  on  this 
subject  which  had  taken  place,  and  was  still  going  on.  It  was  once  thought  that  the 
power  of  Congress  was  amply  sufficient  to  secure  the  end  of  their  institution.  The  error 
was  now  seen  by  every  one.  The  members  most  tenacious  of  republicanism,  he  observed, 
were  as  loud  as  any  in  declaring  against  the  vices  of  democracy.  This  progress  of  the 
public  mind  led  him  to  anticipate  the  time  when  others  as  well  as  himself  would  join  in 
the  praise  bestowed  by  Mr.  Neckar  on  the  British  constitution — namely,  that  it  is  the  only- 
government  in  the  world  '  which  unites  public  strength  with  individual  security. 
********** 

"As  to  the  executive,  it  seemed  to  be  admitted  that  no  good  one  could  be  established 
on  republican  principles.  Was  not  this  giving  up  the  merits  of  the  question  ;  for  can 
there  be  a  good  government  without  a  good  executive  ?  The  English  model  was  the 
only  good  one  on  this  subject.  The  hereditary  interest  of  the  King  was  so  interwoven 
with  that  of  the  nation,  and  his  personal  emolument  so  great  that  he  was  placed  above 
the  danger  of  being  corrupted  from  abroad  ;  and  at  the  same  time  was  both  sufficiently 
independent  and  sufficiently  controlled  to  answer  the  purpose  of  the  institution  at  home. 
One  of  the  weak  sides  of  republics  was  their  being  liable  to  foreign  influence  and  cor- 
ruption. Men  of  little  character,  acquiring  great  power,  became  easily  the  tools  of  inter- 
meddling neighbors.  ■  Sweden  was  a  striking  instance.  The  French  and  English  had 
each  their  parties  during  the  late  revolution  which  was  affected  by  the  predominant  in- 
fluence of  the  former.  What  is  the  inference  from  all  these  observations  ?  That  we 
ought  to  go  as  far,  in  order  to  attain  stability  and  permanency,  as  republican  principles 
will  admit.  Let  one  branch  of  the  legislature  hold  their  places  for  life,  or  at  least 
during  good  behavior.     Let  the  executive  also  be  for  life." 


A   RETURN   TO   CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS.  129 

Towards  the  close  of  the  Convention,  Hamilton  handed  to  Madison  a  plan  of  a 
constitution  in  accordance  with  his  own  ideas. 

Art.  VIII.,  sec.  1,  contains  the  following  : 

"The  governor  or  president  of  each  state  shall  be  appointed  under  the  authority  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  shall  have  a  right  to  negative  all  laws  about  to  be  passed  in  the 
state  of  which  he  shall  be  governor  or  president,  subject  to  such  qualifications  and  reg- 
ulations as  the  legislature  of  the  United  States  shall  prescribe." 

The  Republican  party  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  this  doctrine. 
It  does  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  the  war  is  over.  Its  rapid  drift  toward  central- 
ization, aristocracy  and  monopolies,  is  indeed  cause  for  alarm,  and  calls  for  an 
emphatic  protest  by  the  people  at  the  coming  Presidential  election. 

Blaine's  Revenue-Centralization  Scheme. 

Not  to  be  outdone  by  his  party  in  the  reckless  advance  toward  centralization, 
Mr.  Blaine  has — not  extemporaneously  and  unadvisedly,  but  in  writing  and 
deliberately — devised  a  scheme  of  ' '  paternal  government "  of  a  most  objectionable 
nature.  We  refer  to  his  plan  for  the  collection  of  revenues  to  be  distributed 
among  the  States.  Hon.  James  Speed,  of  Kentucky,  who  was  the  Attorney  of 
the  United  States  in  President  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  recently  said  of  it : 

His  letter  about  the  surplus  revenue  is  monstrous.  It  shows  him  to  be  as  unsafe  in 
his  view  of  the  framework  of  our  government  as  he  is  in  regard  to  international  law.  It  is 
charitable  to  say  the  letter  is  the  child  of  ignorance,  for  if  not  it  is  the  child  of 
demagoguery. 

The  letter  is  as  follows  : 

Augusta,  Me. ,  Nov.  22,  1883. 
Charles  Emory  Smith,  Esq.  ,  Editor  Press. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  your  note  inquiring  if  I  should  be  willing  to  give,  in  the  more 
authentic  form  of  a  letter  over  my  own  signature,  certain  views  which  I  expressed  in 
conversation  several  weeks  since  touching  an  important  financial  question.  I  under- 
stand you  refer  to  some  observations  I  made  to  one  of  your  assistant  editors  in  regard  to 
the  proposition  to  the  Republican  State  Convention  of  Pennsylvania  for  the  distribution 
of  the  surplus  revenue  of  the  National  Treasury  among  the  States.  I  understand  you  to 
refer  still  more  particularly  to  a  suggestion  of  my  own  as  a  substitute  for  the 
Pennsylvania  proposition,  to  which  I  thought  I  saw  fatal  objections.  I  have  no  reason 
for  withholding  my  views,  and  I  admit  the  wisdom  of  your  suggestion  that  I  would 
better  state  them  myself  than  to  have  them  possibly  misstated  by  others. 

The  proposition  of  the  Pennsylvania  Republican  Convention  is  to  distribute  "  among 
the  States  any  surplus  in  the  National  Treasury  that  may  arise  from  a  redundant 
revenue.  "  The  first  objection  which  I  see  to  this  proposition  is  the  utter  uncertainty  of 
the  amount  of  "redundant  revenue."  It  may  be  one  million  or  it  may  be  one 
hundred  millions.  The  amount,  depending  as  it  does  on  so  many  contingencies,  cannot 
be  determined  in  advance  with  even  approximate  exactness,  and  the  States  could  not 
therefore  depend  upon  a  steady  resource.  Unless  steady,  it  would  not  bring  relief, 
because  it  would  not  enable  the  States  to  dispense  with  any  part  of  their  own  systems  of 
taxation.  An  occasional  gift  from  the  National  Treasury  would  not  be  valuable.  That 
was  proved  by  the  distribution  of  the  revenue  under  the  act  of  1836  in  the  Presidency  of 
Gen.  Jackson.  It  did  no  good.  It  was  frittered  away  in  all  the  States.  Here  in 
Maine  they  made  an  absolute  per  capita  distribution  of  it  among  the  entire  population — 
a  trifling  sum  to  each.      That  of  course  threw  contempt  upon  the  whole  measure. 

There  is  a  second  objection  to  the  Pennsylvania  proposition  which  in  my  judgment 
is  still  more  serious.  If  you  simply  resolve  to  distribute  the  "redundant  national  revenue" 
among  the  States,  you  impose  on  Senators  and  Representatives  a  divided  interest  which 
would  be  embarrassing  and  hurtful.  For  the  benefit  of  their  States — especially  of  those 
States  that  might  be  in  pressing  need  of  money — Senators  and  Representatives  would 
desire  the  "  redudant  revenue  "  to  be  as  large  as  possible.  This  would  present  a  con- 
stant temptation  to  withhold  appropriations  from  objects  of  a  really  National  character. 
It  would  be  unfair  to  Senators  and  Representatives  to  lay  upon  them  and  before  them 
obligations  and  motives  which  would  constantly  tend  to  turn  them  from  the  straight  path 
of  duty  to  the  National  government.      You  cannot  have  the   National    government   and 

9 


130  A  RETURN   TO^CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS. 

the  State  governments  joint  owners  in  the  same  treasury    without   mischievous   conflict. 
Such  a  partnership  is  at  war  with  the  well-being  of  both  State  and  Nation. 

A  third  objection  to  the  Pennsylvania  proposition  is  that  it  proceeds  upon  the 
assumption  of  a  continuing  redundancy  of  National  revenue.  This  is  opposed  to  all 
sound  views  of  administration .  The  Government  wants  just  enough  revenue.  A  redun- 
dancy always  leads  to  extravagance,  to  many  forms  of  corruption,  and  to  all  manner  of 
schemes  for  getting  rid  of  the  money.  A  Congress  assembling  with  tens  of  millions  of 
surplus  at  its  disposal,  would  be  very  sure  to  hold  sessions  which  would  prove  profitless 
to  the  people  and  perilious  to  its  own  members.  Since  the  war  closed  we  have  had  no 
embarrassing  redundancy  of  revenue  because  the  payment  of  the  National  debt  has 
afforded  at  once  the  readiest  and  the  wisest  mode  of  appropriating  every  dollar  not 
needed  for  the  current  expenses  of  the  Government. 

The  time  is  rapidly  approaching,  however,  when,  by  the  terms  in  which  the  National 
debt  is  funded,  the  payment  of  the  remainder  must  of  necessity  be  postponed  for  years — 
the  largest  part  of  it,  indeed,  to  the  next  century.  This  brings  with  it  the  necessity  of 
reducing  the  National  revenue.  The  present  system  of  taxation  is  yielding  more  than  a 
hundred  millions  beyond  the  amount  required  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government- 
Its  reduction  will  soon  become  an  imperative  duty.  Indeed,  a  strong  movement  is  already 
on  foot  for  the  repeal  of  the  entire  system  of  internal  revenue — on  the  assumption,  which 
is  justified  by  fact,  that  receipts  from  customs  will  afford  abundant  revenue  for  the  needs 
of  the  Government.  The  Protectionists  desire  this,  but  not  they  alone.  Judge  Kelley  is 
not  more  earnestly  in  favor  of  it  than  is  Mr.  Cox  of  New  York,  who  is  a  most  intelligent 
representative  of  the  free  trade  interest,  Many  of  the  leading  free  traders  in  Congress  are 
opposed  to  the  continuation  of  the  tax  on  spirits.  It  is,  therefore,  quite  evident — it  is  at 
least  highly  probable — that  a  coalition  of  men  holding  antagonistic  views  on  the  question 
of  protection,  will  at  the  first  opportunity  effect  the  abolition  of  the  system  of  internal 
revenue. 

This  conjuncture  of  circumstances  gives,  in  my  judgment,  a  rare  opportunity  to  re- 
lieve taxation  in  the  States.  And  it  is  under  the  State  governments  that  taxation  is  felt 
most  severely.  The  National  government  has  the  benefit  of  easy  because  indirect  forms 
of  taxation.  It  is  the  direct  tax  that  is  felt  to  be  oppressive.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
war  the  National  government  levied  a  direct  tax  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars  upon  the 
States — about  sixty-six  cents  per  capita  on  the  whole  population.  It  frightened  the  people, 
and  the  effect  was  so  depressing  that  all  kinds  of  composition  and  adjustment  were  in- 
vented to  avoid  payment.  But,  concurrently  with  the  fright  occasioned  by  the  direct  tax, 
hundreds  of  millions  were  raised  in  a  single  year  by  customs  and  by  excise  without  a  word 
of  protest  or  a  sense' of  hardship. 

Our  State  and  municipal  taxation  is  direct.  It  comes  upon  the  property  with  crush- 
ing force.  There  are  few  communities  in  the  United  States  that  pay  so  little  as  one  per 
cent,  per  annum  on  the  actual  value  of  their  real  property.  There  are  many  communi- 
ties that  pay  more  than  two  per  cent,  on  the  actual  value.  The  houses,  the  farms,  the 
factories,  the  stores,  the  shops,  all  feel  it  as  a  heavy  burden — a  burden  unrelieved  by  any 
form  of  indirect  taxation.  Why,  therefore,  should  riot  the  States  be  permitted  to  have 
the  tax  on  spirits  for  their  own  benefit  if  the  National  government  does  not  need  it  ?  The 
National  and  State  governments,  as  I  think  I  have  shown,  cannot  safely  share  the  same 
revenue,  but  if  the  National  government  has  no  longer  need  of  the  tax  on  spirits,  why 
should  not  the  entire  amount  which  it  yields  annually  be  paid  over  to  the  States?  Could 
it  be  regarded  as  wise  statesmanship  to  continue  the  heavy,  oppressive  direct  tax  on  all 
property  under  the  State  governments,  and  at  the  same  time  command  a  hurtful  luxury 
like  spirits  to  go  free  ?  That  would  be  a  folly  which  no  other  government  on  the  globe 
could  by  any  possibility  commit.  The  tax  on  spirits  oppresses  no  one.  It  is  paid  only 
by  the  consumer,  and  the  most  extreme  advocate  of  temperance  cannot  maintain  that 
taxing  the  article  increases  its  consumption. 

The  National  Government  has  an  absolute  monopoly  of  the  revenue  from  customs, 
for  the  States  are  forbidden  by  the  Constitution  to  levy  a  tax  on  imports.  The  excise 
tax  was  left  open  both  to  the  National  and  State  governments.  But  as  matter  of  fact,  it 
is  only  the  National  Government  that  can  effectively  levy  and  collect  it.  Should  the  State 
of  Illinois,  for  instance,  attempt  to  levy  an  excise  tax  on  whiskey,  the  distilleries  would 
be  removed  across  the  river  to  Missouri.  Each  State  in  turn  that  attempts  to  collect  an 
excise  tax  would  find  itself  baffled  and  disabled.  It  is  only  the  National  Government 
that  can  do  it,  and  the  National  Government  can  do  it  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  States. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  repealing  the  tax  on  spirits,  the  National  Government  can  assign  it 
to  the  States  in  proportion  to  their  population.  The  machinery  of  collection  is  to-day  in 
complete  operation.  A  bill  of  ten  lines  could  direct  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  pay 
the  whole  of  it — less  the  small  expense  of  collection — to  the  States  and  Territories  in  the 
proportion  of  their  population,  and  to  continue  it  permanently  as  part  of  the  regular  an- 
nual revenue  of  the  States. 


A   RETURN   TO   CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS. 


131 


The  amount  yielded  by  the  tax  on  spirituous  and  malt  liquors  last  year  was  over 
eighty-six  millions  of  dollars  ($86,000,000).  On  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1880  it  would 
pay  about  one  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  per  capita  to  all  the  people.  The  tendency 
would  be  to  increase  rather  than  to  diminish  this  ratio  as  time  wore  on.  Illicit  distiller- 
ies would  disappear  when  every  State  and  every  town  should  come  to  realize  that  it  was 
being  defrauded  of  its  own  revenue  by  permitting  or  winking  at  the  violation  of  law. 
On  the  basis  of  one  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  per  head  the  relief  of  the  States  would 
be  very  great.  I  append  a  table  showing  what  each  State  would  receive  on  the  basis 
of  the  present  revenue.  * 

In  considering  the  measure,  as  I  have  very  carefully  for  some  months,  I  may  possibly 
have  overlooked  objections  which  others  may  suggest.  But  the  more  I  have  reflected  upon 
it  the  more  evident  it  has  become  to  my  mind  that  it  is  wiser  to  tax  whiskey  than  to  tax 
farms  and  homesteads  and  shops,  and  that  it  would  be  an  act  of  incalculable  folly  to  re- 
mit the  eighty-six  millions  of  dollars  instead  of  giving  it  to  the  States  for  the  relief  of 
oppressive  local  taxation.  ';  ;;"" 

I  trust  I  have  made  the  difference  between  this  proposition  and  the  Pennsylvania 
proposition  sufficiently  plain.  The  one  I  have  suggested  gives  the  revenue  from  a  speci- 
fied tax  to  the  States  and  does  not  depend  on  a  chance  surplus  or  an  accidental 
remainder  in  the  National  treasury.  It  makes  the  tax  on  spirituous  and  malt  liquors  a 
permanent  resource  to  all  the  States,  enabling  them  thereby  to  definitely  readjust  and 
reduce  their  own  taxation.  Each  State  could  wisely  use  its  own  share  for  the  relief  of 
its  own  situation.  In  Maine,  for  example,  our  share  would  enable  us  to  repeal  absolutely 
the  State  tax  proper,  leaving  only  the  county  and  town  taxes  upon  the  people.  In  your 
State  of  Pensylvania,  where  licenses  support  the  State  government,  the  cities  and  towns 
could  receive  pro  rata  the  seven  and  a  half  millions  that  would  fall  to  your  share.  Your 
own  city  of  Philadelphia  would  receive  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  per  annum.  States 
that  have  been  so  oppressed  by  debt  as  to  be  tempted  or  driven  to  repudiation,  would 
regain  their  credit,  and  every  community,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  would,  in  one  form 
or    another,  realize    that  burdens  of  taxation   were    in  some   degree    ameliorated.  §51 

great  beneficence  ';   to  the  people  in  all  parts  of  the 


believe  the  measure  would  prove  a 
Republic. 


Very  respectfully, 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 


*  Note — The  following  table  will  show  the  amount  which  each  State  and  Territory 
would  receive  under  the  distribution  outlined  in  the  preceding  letter.  The  amount  is 
given  in  round  thousands  : 


STATES . 


Alabama ' $2,208,000. 

Arkansas 1,405,000 

California 1,557,000 

Colorado 340,000 

Connecticut 1, 188,000 

Delaware 255,000 

Florida 470,000 

Georgia, 1,598,000 

Illinois 5,285,000 

Indiana 3,461,000 

Iowa 2,884,000 

Kansas 1,743,000 

Kentucky 2,884,000 

Louisiana 1,644,000 

Maine 1, 134,000 

Maryland 1,634,000 

Massachusetts 3, 120,000 

Michigan 2,863,000 

Minnesota 1,365,000 


Mississippi^ $1  980,000 

Missouri 3,794,000 

Nebraska 791,000 

Nevada .  ...» 100,000 

New  Hampshire 605,000 

New  Jersey 1,980,000 

New   York 8,893,000 

North  Carolina ....  2,450,000 

Ohio 5,596,000 

Oregon 215,000 

Pennsylvania 7,493,000 

Rhode  Island 483,000 

South   Carolina 1,742,000 

Tennessee 2,698,000 

Texas 2,785,000 

Vermont 581,000 

Virginia 2,646,000 

West  Virginia , 1,081,000 

Wisconsin . . .' 2,301,000 


TERRITORIES. 


Arizona $70,000 

Dakota 236,000 

Idaho 57,ooo 

Montana 69,000 

New  Mexico 208,000 


Utah $251,000 

Washington 121,000 

Wyoming   36,000 

District  of  Columbia 310,000 


132  A   RETURN   TO    CONSTITUTIONAL   METHODS. 

The  Centennial  of  the  Constitution. 

The  Constitution  was  framed  in  1787,  then  submitted  to  the  States  for  adoption, 
and  the  new  government  which  it  created  formally  .inaugurated  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1789. 

The  incoming  administration  will  then  remain  in  office  until  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  its  adoption,  and  must  prepare  a  fitting  celebration  of  that  great 
event. 

The  natural  effect  will  be  a  revival  of  interest  in  Constitutional  history  and 
principles  and  a  popular  demand  for  a  return  to  Constitutional  methods  of  govern- 
ment. Strict  adherence  and  loyalty  to  that  great  organic  law  will  be  the  standard 
by  which  political  parties  will  be  judged. 

Such  a  criterion  should  be  adopted  by  the  people  during  the  present  campaign, 
in  order  that  the  party  which  has  ever  construed  the  Constitution  strictly  in  their 
favor  as  against  the  pernicious  theory  of  centralisation  and  imperialism,  may  put 
an  end  to  war  constructions  in  time  of  peace,  and  prepare  to  inaugurate  the  second 
century  of  its  existence  with  their  accustomed  respect  and  reverence  for  that  im- 
mortal document — a  production  which  the  foremost  statesman  of  Europe  has  justly 
termed  "  the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and 
purpose  of  man." 

There  are  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  Independent  and  Republican 
voters  who  prefer  the  Jeffersonian  or  Democratic  theory  of  local  self-government 
to  imperial  tendencies,  but  who  because  of  temporary  and  sectional  issues  have 
in  the  past  affiliated  with  the  Republican  party.  Happily  those  disturbing  issues 
are  dead  and  buried  and  the  independent  and  intelligent  masses  are  now  considering 
first  principles  and  drifting  toward  the  wisely  framed  and  popular  platform  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison. 

To  them  the  Democratic  party  cordially  extends  the  right  hand  of  fellowship 
and  welcomes  their  co-operation  in  the  coming  return  to  Constitutional  methods. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  133 


Administrative  Reform. 


Open  the  Books. 

♦ 

"  We  need  to  have  the  books  in  the  government  offices  opened  for  examina- 
tion," said  our  candidate  for  Vice-President,  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  when  he  re- 
turned to  his  people  on  July  12th,  1S84,  laden  with  the  honors  heaped  upon  him 
at  Chicago,     In  a  sentence  he  expressed  a  leading  thought  of  this  campaign. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1876,  Senator  Davis,  of  West  Virginia,  called  the  at- 
ention  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  the  changes  and  alterations  in  the 
Finance  Reports,  books  and  accounts  of  the  Treasury  Department,  both  by  reso- 
lution and  speech.  He  asked  then  for  a  committee  of  investigation,  but  the  Re- 
publican Senate  refused  the  appointment,  and  referred  the  resolution  to  the 
Standing  Committee  on  Finance,  which  Committee  accepted  and  presented,  as  its 
report,  the  explanatory  letter  of  the  Republican  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This 
ended  action  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress.  On  the  assembling  of  the  Forty-fifth 
Congress,  Senator  Davis  renewed  his  resolution,  and  this  time  was  successful  in 
obtaining  the  appointment  of  a  committee,  of  which  he  was  made  the  Chairman. 
The  report  following  the  investigation  (46th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Report  No. 
539)  shows  a  most  extraordinary  condition  of  affairs,  and,  alone,  amply  justifies 
the  demand  of  Senator  Hendricks  for  the  opening  of  the  books  of  the  government 
offices  for  examination. 

WHAT  IS  THE  REGISTER  OF  THE   TREASURY  ? 

The  Register  of  the  Treasury  is  the  official  bookkeeper  of  the  government,  and 
has  been  from  its  organization ;  he  has  charge  of  the  great  account  books  of  the 
United  States,  which  show,  or  ought  to,  every  receipt  and  disbursement,  and 
from  which  statements  are  annually  made  for  transmission  to  Congress.  This 
fact  should  be  borne  in  mind  for  its  relation  to  what  follows : 

It  is  and  has  been  the  custom  and  requirement  that  the  Finance  Report  to  Con- 
gress should  state  the  public  debt  for  each  year  of  the  existence  of  the  govern- 
ment. In  1871  it  was  noted  that  the  report  of  that  year  very  widely  differed 
from  the  Report  of  1870;  as  to  years  from  1833  to  1870  inclusive.  Prior  to  1833, 
they  agreed.     The  differences  involve  many  million  dollars. 

AND   WHY  ? 

Up  until  the  year  1870  the  Register  of  the  Treasury  alone  made  the  statement 
of  the  public  debt,  but  in  that  year  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  made  one  as 


134  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

well,  and  his  report  and  that  of  the  Register  did  not  agree;  the  discrepancies  of 

the  respective  tables   of  statement  excited  unfavorable  comment  in  the  financial 

circles  of  England  as  well  as  this  country,  according  to  an  Assistant  Secretary  of 

the  Treasury.     As  a  consequence,  the  Register  was  ordered  to  make  changes  in 

his  table  so  as  to  make  it  conform  with  that  of  the  Secretary,   or  to  omit  it 
altogether. 

AN  EXTRAORDINARY  ORDER. 
Here  is  the  letter  of  order  (see  testimony  of  Register  Schofield,  p.  5): 

"  Treasury,  Department, 

"November  24,  1871. 

"Sir:  I  have  Jo  request  that  the  statement  of  the  public  debt  on  the  1st 
day  of  January  in  each  of  the  years  from  1791  to  1842,  inclusive,  and  at  various 
dates  in  subsequent  years,  to  July  1,  1870,  as  printed  on  page  276  of  the 
Finance  Report  for  1870,  may  be  omitted  from  your  tables  in  the  forthcom- 
ing reports,  or  else  that  it  be  corrected  to  conform  to  Table  H  on  page  xxv 
of  the  same  report  for  the  same  year. 

"This  request  is  made  in  consequence  of  a  letter  from  the  Assistant  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  now  in  London,  who  complains  that  these  different 
tables  are  frequently  referred  to  in  England,  and  the  discrepancies  between 
them  constantly  and  unfavorably  commented  upon. 

"The  table  found  on  page  xxv  is,  I  believe,  as  nearly  correct  as  the  ex- 
amination of  the  accounts  up  to  the  present  time  will  enable  it  to  be  made, 
though  I  am  under  the  impression  there  will  be  some  changes  necessary  in 
order  to  make  it  absolutely  reliable. 

"Very  respectfully, 

"J.  H.  SAVILLE, 

Chief  Clerk. 
"Hon.  Joiin  Allison, 

" Register  of  the  Treasury." 

This  order  certainly  was  a  most  singular  one,  for  it  commanded  the  Register  of 
the  Treasury,  the  bookkeeper  of  the  government,  either  to  falsify  the  results  of 
his  books,  or  to  omit  a  practice  which,  if  it  had  not  the  sanction  of  law,  certainly 
had  that  of  a  long  standing  custom — a  custom  as  old  as  the  government  itself, 
and  therefore  quite  as  binding.  But  the  order  was  obeyed,  and  the  Register's 
table  of  statement  of  the  public  debt  for  1871  presented  a  wide  discrepancy  when 
compared  with  the  one  presented  by  himself  in  1870. 

This  difference  is  what  ? 

Large  enough  to  startle  even  a  Republican  financier? 


Below  is  presented  the  extraordinary  statement,  now  a  part  of  the  records  of 

the  United  States  Senate : 

f 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 


135 


STATEMENT  F.-PREPARED  BY  SENATE  COMMITTEE  ON  TREASURY  ACCOUNTS. 

Secretary' s  and  Register's  tabulated  statements  of  the  public  debt  for  the  fiscal  years 

1833  to  1870,  inclusive. 

Copied  from  the  Finance  Reports  of  1870  and  1871. 


Year. 


1333. 

1334. 

1835. 

1836 . 

1837. 

1838. 

1839. 

1840. 

1841. 

1842. 

1843. 

1844. 
1845 

1846. 

1847. 

1848. 

1819. 

1850. 
1851. 
1852. 
1853. 
4854. 
1855. 
1856. 
1857. 
1858. 
1859. 
1869. 
1861 . 
1862. 
1863. 
1S64. 
1865. 
1896. 
1867. 
1868. 
1869. 
1870. 


Total. 


Difference. 


Secretary's  state 
ment,  Finance 
Report,  1870, 
page  sxv. 


$7,001 

4,760 

37 

336 

3,308 

10,434 

3,573 

5.250 

13,594 

20.601 

32,742 

23,461 

15,925 

15,550 

38,826. 

47,044. 

63,061, 

63,452, 

68,304. 

66,199! 

59,803, 

42.242, 

35,586, 

31,972. 

28,699, 

44.911, 

58,496. 

64.842, 

90,580, 

524.176, 

1,119,772. 

1,815,784, 

2.630,647. 

2,773,236, 

2.678,126, 

2,611,687. 

2,538,452, 

2,480,672, 


.093  S3 
,032  08 
.513  05 
,957  83 
,124  07 
.221  14 
,343  82 
,875  54 
,480  73 
,226  28 
,922  00 
,652  50 
,303  01 
,202  91 
,534  7' 
,862  23 
,858  69 
,773  55 
796  02 
341  71 
117  70 
222  42 
956  56 
537  90 
831  85 
88103 
837  88 
287  88 
873  72 
412  13 
133  63 
370  57 
869  74 
173  69 
103  87 
851  19 
213  94 
427  81 


20,233,160,879  33 
19,985,393,537  67 


247,767,341  66 


Register's  state- 
ment, Finance 
Report,  1870, 
page  276.      . 


$7,001,033  88 

4,760,031  08 

351,239  05 

291,089  05 

1,873,223  55 

4,857,660  46 

11,983,737  53 

5,125,077  63 

6,737,398  00 

15,028,486  3 

27,203,450  69 

24,748,188  23 

17,093,794  8S 

16,750,926  33 

38,956,623  38 

48,526,379  37 

64,701,693  71 

64,22S.238  3? 

62,560,395  26 

65,131,692  13 

67,340,023  78 

47,242,206  05 

39,969,731  05 

30,963,909  64 

29,060,386  90 

44,910,777  66 

58,755,699  33 

64,769,703  08 

90,867,823  68 

514,211,371  92 

1,098,793,18137 

1^40,690,489  49 

2,682,593.026  53 

2,783,425,879  21 

2.692,199:215  12 

2,636,320.964  67 

2,489,002.480  5f 

2,386,358.509  74 


19,985,393,537  61 


Difference,  or  increase,  in  Secretary's  state- 
ment, as  compared  with  Register's  state- 
ment   


Secretary's  compared  with 
Register's. 


Increase. 


$665  95 
1  GO 

"45,868  78 

1,429,900  52 
5,576,560  68 


Decrease. 


125,797  911 
6,857,082  73' 
5,572,739  91 
5,539,471  31 


5,744,400  76 
1,007,649  58 


1,008,628  26 


1,103  37 


72,584  80 


9,965,040  21 
20,978,957  26 
75,093,881  08 


99,449,733  36 
94,313,828  07 


332,843.895  54 
85,076,553,88 


247,767,341  66 


247,767,341  GO 


$313,776  00 


8,410,393  71 


1,286,535  73 

1,168,491  79 
1,200,723,36 

130,088  61 
1,481,517  14 
1,642,835  02 

775,464  82 


7,537,511  08 
4,999,983  63 
4,382,774  49 


360,555  05 
'  8571861*45 

'286,594  96 


1,944,150  79 
10,189,705  52 
14,073,11125 
24,633,113  48 


Register's  state- 
ment, Finance 
Report,  1871, 
page  368. 


$7,001,698  83 

4,760,082  08 

37,513  05 

336,957  83 

3,308,124  07 

10.434.221  14 
3,573,343  82 
5,250,875  54 

13,591,480  73 
20,601,226  28 
32,742,922  00 
23,461,652  50 
15,925,303  01 
15,550.202  97 
38,826,534  77 
47,044,802  23 
03,061,858  69 
63,452,773  55 
68,304,796  02 
66,199,341  71 
59,803,117  70 

42.242.222  42 
35,586,956  56 
31,972,537  90 
28,699,831  85 
44,911,88103 
58,496,837  88 
64,842,287,88 
90,580,873  72 

524,176,412  13 
1,119,772,138  63 
1,815,784,370  57 
2,680,647,869  74 
2,773,236,173  69 
2,678,126,103  87 
2,611,687,851  19 
2.588,452,213  94 
2,480,672,427  81 


85,076,553  88    20,233, 160,879  33 
19,985,393,537  67 


247,767,341  66 


Year. 


1833 

1834 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 

1846 

1847 

1848 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1862 

1863 

1884 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 


Where  Lays  the  Power  to  Order,  a  Change  ? 

When  Register  Schofield  was  under  examination  before  the  Committee  the 
following  testimony  was  elicited  (see  testimony,  page  9)  : 

By  Mr.  Beck 

Q.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  the  7th  clause  of  section  9,  article 
1,  provides  that  "no  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  Treasury  but  in  consequence 
of  appropriations  made  by  law  ;  and  a  regular  statement  and  account  of  the  re- 
ceipts and  expenditures  of  all  public  money  shall  be  published  from  time  to 
ime  ;"   and  section  813  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States  makes  it  thf 


136  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM. 

duty  of  the  Register  "  to  keep  all  accounts  of  the  receipts  aud  expenditures  of 
the  public  money,  and  of  all  debts  due  to  or  from  the  United  States."  Now 
please  state  by  what  authority,  if  any,  the  Secretary  or  his  chief  clerk,  or  any- 
body else,  could  direct  the  Register  either  to  change  his  reports  or  conform  them 
to  any  view  that  the  Secretary  or  any  one  else  might  have  as  to  the  proper  mode 
of  keeping  and  publishing  them  ? — A.  I  suppose  the  Secretary  Las  authority  to 
prescribe  the  manner  in  which  the  accounts  shall  be  kept,  but  I  do  not  suppose 
that  any  Secretary  has  the  right  to  alter  the  books  of  the  Treasury,  and- 1  have 
always  understood  that  that  was  never  done. 

Q.  Admitting  that  the  Secretary  had  the  right  to  prescribe  rules  for  the  future 
action  of  the  Register,  had  he  any  sort  of  authority  to  give  orders  as  to  how  past 
events  should  be  stated  or  past  records  changed  after  they  had  been  published 
and  submitted  to  Congress  under  the  constitutional  requirement  ? — A.  I  think 
that  would  be  a  question  which  your  committee  ought  to  answer  in  your  report. 

By  the  Chairman  : 

*  *  *  *  ***** 

Q.  Are  you  not  as  Register  the  official  bookkeeper  of  the  government,  and  final 
custodian  of  all  warrants  and  vouchers,  whatever  may  have  been  paid  for  any  ex- 
penditure or  receipt  of  the  government  ? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Can  any  money  be  received  into  or  paid  out  of  the  Treasury  without  a  war- 
rant going  through  your  office  ? — A.  Moneys  are  received  into  the  Treasury  by 
warrants  and  paid  out  on  warrants,  which  by  the  act  of  1789,  Rev.  Stat.,  sec.  305, 
must  be  drawn  by  the  Secretary,  countersigned  by  the  Comptroller,  and  registered 
by  the  Register. 

Q.  I  ask  the  general  question  whether  any  money  can  be  paid  out  or  received 
into  the  Treasury  without  the  warrant  going  through  your  office  ? — A.  It  cannot. 

Q.  You  keep  all  accounts  of  the  government,  do  you  not,  where  money,  or 
bonds,  or  anything  which  relates  to  the  financial  condition  of  the  government  is- 
concerned  ? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  When  was  the  Register's  office  established? — A.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
government,  by  the  act  of  1789. 

Q.  When  was  the  Secretary's  office  as  a  warrant  division  established  ?— A.  The 
Secretary  always  issued  the  warrants,  but  I  think  the  warrant  division  as  it  now 
exists  is  of  recent  origin. 

Q.  Can  you  give  us  the  time  ? — A.  I  cannot  without  looking  it  up  ;  I  think 
about  1870. 

This  order  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  resulted  in  an  increase  of  over 
$247,000,000  in  the  public  debt,  as  shown  by  the  statement  of  it  for  the  year  1871, 
going  back  to  the  year  1833,  though  during  those  years  the  statements  made  to 
Congress  purported  to  be  an  accurate  transcript  of  the  books  of  the  Register. 

THE   MODE   OF   STATING  THE  PUBLIC   DEBT. 

It  appears  that  after  1870,  in  accordance  with  the  order  of  the  Secretary,  there 
was  a  difference  in  the  mode  of  stating  the  public  debt.  How  these  changes  were 
made  is  well  shown  by  William  Guilford,  who  in  the  Register's  Office  had  charge 
of  making  up  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures  of  the  government.  His  testimony 
is  as  follows  (see  testimony,  pp.  25  and  26) : 

********  * 

Q.  Did  you  prepare  that  statement  for  the  committee  in  the  Register's  office 
(handing  to  witness  statement  marked  "  Statement  No.  2  "),  being  a  "  statement  of 
the  Receipts,  Expenditures  and  outstanding  principal  of  the  Public  Debt,  intere-t, 
and  premium  paid  from  1860  to  1877,  inclusive,  compiled  from  the  books  in  the 
Register's  office  ?" — A.  Yes,  sir;  I  prepared  that  with  my  own  hands. 

***  ******. 

* 
Q.  I  see  in  a  column  headed  "Amounts  to  be  added  to  receipts,"  marked  "b," 

$2,019,776.10;  and  another  one  marked  "  c,"  $1,000,000;  and  then  one  marked 

"d,"  $3,274,051.69,  making  a  total  of  $6,293,827.79,  which  you  say  is  "  to  be 

added  to  receipts."     What  is  meant  by  that  ? — A.  That  is  in  accordance  with  the 

Secretary's  Report  of  1871.     Those  amounts  do  not  appear  upon  our  books.   They 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  137 

are  added  in  accordance  with  the  Secretary's  order,  in  order  to  harmonize  the  two, 
as  is  shown  in  the  report  of  1871. 

Q.  I  understand  that  these  three  items,  amounting  to  between  six  and  seven 
million  dollars,  do  not  appear  upon  your  hooks  ? — A.  They  do  not. 

Q.  But  are  added  here  by  order  of  the  Secretary? — A.  So  I  understand. 

Q.  How  did  you  state  the  debt  for  1870  and  previously  ? — A.  I  did  not  state 
it  myself,  but  it  was  stated  by  the  Issues  and  Redemptions. 

Q.  How  has  it  been  stated  since  ? — A.  It  has  been  stated  since  by  Receipts  and 
Expenditures,  and  the  table  has  been  revised  in  accordance. 

Q.  In  the  revision  you  speak  of,  you  changed  the  amounts  as  they  had  pre- 
viously been  reported  from  your  office,  commencing  with  1833  ? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

By  Mr.  Allison: 

Q.  Do  I  understand  that  you  have  charge  of  the  books  in  the  Register's  office 
showing  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures  of  the  government  ? — A.  No,  sir;  I  com- 
pile from  the  books  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures. 

Q.  It  is  a  part  of  your  duty,  then,  to  make  up  a  tabulated  statement  annually 
.  of  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures  from  the  books  of  the  Register  ? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

A  GREATER  MAN  THAN  HAMILTON. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  when  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  adopted  the  system  of 
stating  the  public  debt  by  "Issues  and  Redemptions,"  but  Secretary  Boutwell, 
being  a  greater  man,  changed  the  Hamiltonian  system  in  1870  to  "Receipts  and 
Disbursements,"  with  a  consequent  result  of  increasing  the  public  debt  statement 
by  over  $247,000,000.  The  testimony  of  Major  Power,  then  Chief  Clerk  of  the 
Treasury  Department  (p.  61),  shows  that  not  only  an  accurate  statement  could  be 
made  up  from  the  Issues  and  Redemptions  alone,  but  that  it  was  the  best  way. 

"Why  was  the  change  in  the  mode  of  statement  made  ?  No  improvement  is  the 
result,  but  upon  the  contrary  a  confusion  most  vexatious,  as  the  following  will 
show  : 

DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  RECEIPTS  AND  EXPENDITURES. 

Major  Power  testifies  (see  testimony,  pp.  80  and  81)' ; 

By  the  Chairman  : 

********** 

Q.  Look  at  the  report  of  1871,  at  page  20,  and  state  what  the  total  receipts  cf 
the  government  up  to  June  20,  1871,  were. — A.  The  total  receipts  received  into 
the  Treasury  on  account  of  loans  were  $7,094,541,041.38. 

Q.  The  net  expenditures  ?— A.  $4,857,434,540.51,  leaving  a  balance  of  $2,237,- 
106,500.87. 

Q.  State  what  the  difference  is  between  that  and  the  actual  amount  of  the  pub- 
lic debt  at  that  time  ? — A.  The  actual  public  debt  was  $2,353,211,332.32. 

Q.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  actual  debt  and  what  it  would  appear  to 
be  on  the  basis  of  Receipts  and  Expenditures  ? — A.  $116,104,831.45. 

Q.  If  Receipts  and  Expenditures  were  the  true  way  to  keep  the  public  debt, 
ought  not  the  difference  between  Receipts  and  Expenditures  to  have  shown  the 
actual  amount  of  the  public  debt  ?— A.  It  should  have  shown  the  actual  amount 
of  the  public  debt  plus  the  amount  of  loans  or  bonds  issued  for  which  no  receipts 
came  into  the  Treasury. 

Q.  You  have  said  that  it  does  not  state  the  true  amount  of  the  public  debt  by 
$116,000,000,  in  round  numbers.  What  is  the  reason  why  it  does  not  show  the 
true  amount  ? — A.  On  account  of  the  loans  that  were  issued  and  redeemed  after- 
wards, for  which  no  reeeipts  came  into  the  Treasury,  and  various  items  of  dis- 
counts, premiums,  and  interest  charged  as  principal. 

Q.  If  that  be  so,  Receipts  and  Expenditures  alone  would  not  show  the  actual 
public  debt  ? — A.  Not  unless  you  add  these  items  for  which  no  receipts  were  re- 
ceived. 

********** 

Mr.  Bayley,  of  the  Secretary's  office,  testifies  (see  testimony,  p.  121) : 


138  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

By  Mr.  Dawes  : 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Q.  When  did  this  $116,000,000  first  appear  in  the  Finance  Report  ?— A.  The 
first  note  is  in  1871. 

Q.  When  did  this  $116,000,000  first  appear  ;  what  is  it  a  discrepancy  between  ? 
— A.  The  discrepancy  is  between  the  amount  received  on  account  of  loans  and 
Treasury  notes. 

Q.  In  the  published  reports  in  which  year  did  it  first  appear  to  make  a  dis- 
crepancy ?    A.  In  1870. 

Q.  Under  what  head  ?    A.  Under  the  head  of  tables  K  and  L. 

Q.  What  are  their  names  ?  A.  "  Statement  of  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures 
of  the  United  States." 

Q.  That  made  a  discrepancy  of  $116,000,000  between  that  statement  and  what 
other  statement  ?    A.  And  the  amount  of  the  public  debt  as  shown  at  that  time 
bv  the  debt  statement. 
*Q.  This  $116,000,000,  then,  first  appeared  there  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Bayley  here  says  that  he  found  a  difference  of  $116,000,000  between  the 
public  debt  statement  at  that  time  and  the  amount  of  debt  stated  from  Receipts 
and  Expenditures,  and  the  discrepancy  appeared  for  tho  first  time  in  the  Finance 
Report  of  1871.  That  is  to  say,  when  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures  on  account 
of  the  public  debt  were  compared  in  1870,  there  were  $116,000,000  of  public  debt, 
according  to  the  Secretary's  debt  statement,  unaccounted  for  by  a  statement  made 
up  from  the  Receipts  and  Expenditures  : 

From  the  beginning  of  the  government  to  June  30,  1871  : 

The  total  receipts  were $7,094,541,041  38 

The  total  net  expenditures 4,857,434,540  51 

Balance '. 2,237,106,500  87 

The  public  debt,  June  30,  1871.. 2,353,211,332  32 

Difference __ -.         116,104,831  45 

VERT   REMARKABLE   BOOKKEEPING. 

This  certainly  is  very  remarkable  bookkeeping,  if  it  be  no  worse.  But  it  is 
not  alone  in  these  particulars  that  this  looseness  of  administration  is  shown. 
Perceive  how  little  check  there  is  in  the  issue  of  bonds  and  how  easy  for  a  dis 
honest  man  to  enrich  himself  when  the  opportunity  presents  itself. 

William  Fletcher,  Chief  of  Loan  Division,  in  answer  to  how  bonds  were 
issued,  said  (see  testimony,  pp.  126,  127  and  128): 

By  the  Chairman  : 

*  x-*-*  ****** 

Q.  Please  explain  where,  when  you  went  into  the  office,  and  where  at  present, 
bonds  were  and  are  issued  ?  A.  I  did  not  know  much  about  it  at  the  time  I 
entered  the  office,  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  tell  how  bonds  were  issued  fifteen 
years  ago.  I  was  then  a  clerk  of  class  one  and  had  not  the  management  ;  neither 
have  I  been  over  the  papers  so  as  to  be  able  to  tell  how  bonds  were  issued  then. 
I  can  tell  how  an  issue  is  made  now  and  how  it  has  been  for  a  number  of  years. 

Q.  State  that.  A.  A  deposit  is  made  in  the  office  of  the  Treasurer,  for  which 
he  issues  a  certificate,  and  upon  that  certificate  our  office  issues  an  order  on  the 
Register  of  the  Treasury.  On  that  order  bonds  are  issued.  I  have  a  certificate 
here  which  I  can  show. 

Q.  Does  the  bond  come  back  to  your  office  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  and  receives  the 
seal  and  is  initialed. 

Q.  Does  it  then  go  back  to  the  Treasurer's  office  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  not  to  the 
Treasurer's.  It  is  delivered  in  accordance  with  instructions  indorsed  on  the 
Treasurer's  certificate. 

Q.  The  Treasurer,  after  giving  the  order,  has  nothing  further  to  do  with  the 
bond  in  any  way  ?     A.  JSTo,  sir. 

********** 

Q.  If  you  did  so,  the  bond  would  come  to  you  ■  office  for  putting  on  the  initials? 
A.  Yes,  sir. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  139 

Q.  And  would  not  go  to  the  Treasurer  to  see  if  he  had  money  for  it  in  the 
Treasury  ?    A.  It  would  not  go  to  the  Treasurer. 

Q.  If  the  Treasurer  issues  a  certificate  for  a  one  thousand  dollar  bond,  is  there 
anything  to  prevent  an  order  for  two  thousand  dollars  of  bonds  being  sent  to  the 
Register's  office  from  your  office  ?    A.  Only  our  checks. 

Q.  Your  integrity  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  I  am  putting  that  out  of  the  question  all  the  time.  If  such  a  bond  was 
issued,  that  two  thousand  dollar  bond  would  come  back  to  your  ollice.  What 
would  you  do  with  ?  A.  The  initials  of  the  clerk  having  charge  of  the  loan 
would  be  put  upon  it,  and  it  would  be  sealed. 

Q.  But  the  Treasurer  himself  would  know  nothing  of  it  ?     A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Do  you  keep  an  account  in  your  office  of  accrued  interest  on  bonds  when 
they  are  issued  ?  A.  We  keep  an  account  of  it  as  furnished  by  the  certificate 
of  deposit. 

Q,  To  make  plain,  if  I  were  to  ask  you  to-day  to  furnish  me  a  list  of  ac- 
crued interest  upon  bonds  sold  since  1864,  or  any  other  time,  could  you  do  it  ? 
A.  I  could  not. 

Q.  It  is  not  kept  in  your  office  in  such  a  way  that  you  could  ?  A.  No, 
sir. 

********** 

And  Treasurer  Gilfillan  testifies  (see  testimony,  pp.  106  and  107): 

By  the  Chairman  : 

********* 

Q.  How  do  you  know  that  a  bond  is  issued  for  the  same  amount  that  you 
gave  a  certificate  for?  A.  I  have  not  any  knowledge  of  the  transaction  after 
having  given  the  receipt. 

Q.  If  A  applies  for  a  $1,000  bond  and  pays  you  the  principal  and  accrued  in- 
terest, you  give  him  a  receipt  for  that  $1,000.  That  then  goes  to  the  Loan  Di- 
vision of  the  Secretary's  office,  as  I  understand,  and  the  Loan  Division  issues  an 
order  to  the  Register  to  issue  the  bond '?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  The  Register  issues  the  bond,  and  does  what  with  it?  A.  Transmits  it 
usually  to  the  subscriber,  to  the  depositor. 

By  Mr.  Dawes  : 

Q.  Before  he  does  that,  does  he  not  send  it  to  the  Secretary?  A.  This  present 
loan,  as  I  understand,  goes  back  to  the  Loan  Division  of  the  Secretary's  office.  A 
part  of  the  process  is  then  completed:  I  think  putting  on  the  seal  and  an  initial. 

By  the  Chairman"  : 

Q.  That  is  the  same  office  that  gave  the  order  for  the  bond?  A.  Yes,  sir. 
Whether  they  send  the  bonds  or  not  I  am  not  certain. 

********* 

Q.  Is  there  anything  other  than  the  integrity  of  the  officer  to  prevent  the  Loan 
Division,  if  it  receives  a  certificate  from  you  of  $1,000,  directing  the  Register  to 
issue  a  bond  of  $2,000?    A.  I  do  not  know  that  there  is,  of  my  own  knowledge. 

Q.  Is  there  any  check  upon  the  Loan  Division  from  making  an  order  upon  the 
Register  to  issue  to  A  a  bond  of  any  given  amount?    A.  Not  that  I  am  aware  of. 

Q.  How  long  has  the  present  system  of  issuing  bonds  been  in  practice  ?  A.  I 
think  ever  since  there  has  been  a  Loan  Division.  I  know  it  was  so  in  Mr.  Bout- 
well's  time. 

********* 

Thus  it  will  be  seert  the  Chief  of  the  Warrant  Division,  the  Chief  of  the  Loan 
Division,  and  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  all  say  that  there  is  no  check 
upon  the  Loan  Division  in  issuing  bonds,  and  that  upon  the  integrity  of  one  man 
in  the  Loan  Division  may  depend  whether  or  not  the  bonded  debt  of  the  govern- 
ment is  as  reported. 

WHO  KXOWS  HOW  MANY  LEGAL,  TEXDER  NOTES  ARE  IX  CIRCULATIOX. 

It  is  quite  the  same  with  regard  to  the  issue  of  legal  tender  notes. 

In  regard  to  the  issue  of  legal  tender  notes,  Major  Power  testifies  (see  testimony 
pp.  93  and  93) : 


140  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

By  the  Chairman  : 
********** 

Q.  The  Register's  name  is  on  the  notes,  I  believe  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q,  Does  the  Register  ever  see  the  notes  ?    A.  Not  until  they  are  redeemed. 

Q.  Then  a  note  issued,  though  it  is  signed  by  the  Register,  never  passes  through 
the  Register's  office  ?  A.  That  is,  the  notes  bear  the  facsimile  of  the  Register's 
signature. 

Q.  I  understand  that  the  Superintendent  of  the  Printing  Bureau  delivers  to 
the  Treasurer  direct  the  notes,  legal  tenders  or  fractional  currency  when  the  lat- 
ter was  in  existence.  Do  they  pass  through  any  other  hands  but  those  two  ?  A. 
They  do  not. 

Q.  They  are  ready  for  circulation  when  the  Treasurer  receives  them  from  the 
Printing  3ureau  ?    A.  They  are  then  ready  for  circulation. 

Q.  They  are  ready  ?  A.  Yes  ;  but  they  cannot  be  put  into  circulation  legally 
until  the  Treasurer  covers  the  amount  into  the  Treasury  ;  they  are  not  money  in 
the  Treasury  until  covered  in. 

Q.  Still  they  are  in  his  possession  and  no  one  else  has  possession  of  them  but 
the  Treasurer,  and  he  could,  if  he  was  dishonest,  put  them  in  circulation  without 
making  any  further  report  about  the  matter  ?  A.  There  is  no  other  check  upon 
the  immediate  issue  of  these  notes. 

Q.  They  do  not  pass  through  the  Register's  office  until  thay  are  redeemed  and 
ready  for  destruction  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Then  are  they  registered  in  the  Register's  office,  all  that  have  been  de- 
stroyed ?    A.  They  are. 

********** 

Q.  And  the  same  as  to  deliver  from  the  Printing  Bureau  to  the  Treasurer  has 
been  in  existence  since  the  act  creating  the  two  classes  of  notes,  the  legal  tenders 
and  fractional  currency  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  they  pass  through  no  other  hands,  I  understand,  as  a  check  ?  A» 
No,  sir. 

********** 

This  shows  that  the  Register's  name  is  on  an!  legal  tender  notes,  that  he  does 
not  see  them  until  they  are  redeemed,  and  that  there  is  not  a  proper  check  on  the 
Treasurer  or  Bureau  of  Printing  in  this  regard,  so  that  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Printing  or  the  Treasurer,  if  dishonest,  could  put  notes  improperly  in  circulation. 

INTEREST  PAID  WITHOUT   KNOWING   THE  AMOUNT   OP  BONDS  OUTSTANDING. 

Nor  is  there  anything  more  satisfactory  with  regard  to  the  statement  of  money 
received  for  bonds,  principal  and  interest  together.  According  to  the  following 
testimony  the  Treasurer  pays  the  interest  on  the  bonds,  but  he  cannot  give  the 
amount  of  bonds  outstanding. 

AMOUNT  OF  INTEREST  ON  BONDS. 

James  Gilfillan,  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  testifies  (see  testimony,  pp.  104 
and  105): 

By  the  Chairman  : 

Q.  To  put  it  practically,  if  you  were  asked  to-day  to  furnish  this  committee 
with  the  total  amount  of  interest  and  principal  received  last  year  in  bonds  which 
were  sold,  could  you  furnish  it?  A.  Not  from  the  books,  my  impression  is, 
without  going  through  and  taking  the  warrants  and  separating  them. 

Q.  You  understand  that  when  the  entry  is  made  upon  tlrfe  books  it  is  made  in 
gross  and  not  separate  entries,  one  ©f  principal  and  the  other  of  interest  ?  A.  Yes, 
sir.  The  items  of  receipts  are  internal  revenue,  lands,  war,  and  navy  (which 
are  repayments),  and  miscellaneous.  The  miscellaneous  includes  the  public 
debt  and  other  receipts  except  those  before  named,  which  would  include  princi- 
pal and  interest.     I  think  that  was  what  you  requested  of  mo  in  my  statement. 

Q.  Which  you  said  you  could  not  furnish  ?  A.  Yes,  sir.  It  was  said  it 
could  not  1)3  furnished  as  the  books  had  been  kept  from  1861. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Q.  No  separate  account  on  the  books  was  kept  of  principal  and  interest?  A. 
Of  the  receipts,  no,  sir. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  141 

Q.  Can  your  office  give  the  exact  amounts  of  bonds  now  in  circulation  ?  A. 
A.  No,  sir. 

********** 

Q.  Then  you  might,  so  far  as  your  office  is  concerned,  pay  coupons  of  dupli- 
cate numbers,  or  a  greater  amount  of  coupons  than  were  out  ?  A.  If  they  were 
genuine  coupons. 

Q.  How  would  you  know  whether  they  were  genuine  or  counterfeit — on  the 
same  principle  that  you  know  whether  a  note  is  a  counterfeit  or  not  ?  A. 
Exactly. 

Q.  But  you  have  no  means  of  knowing  whether  a  bond  has  been  fraudulently 
or  illegally  or  wrongfully  gotten  into  circulation  or  not  ?  A.  Unless  in  the 
case  of  registered  bonds,  which  are  caveated,  and  we  might  have  been  notified; 
but  we  never  should  be  notified  of  that,  because  it  is  not  necessary. 


This  shows  that  the  Treasurer  keeps  the  moneys  received  for  bonds,  principal 
and  interest  together,  and  that  he  cannot  tell  from  the  books  how  much  was  re- 
ceived for  principal  and  how  much  for  accrued  interest  for  a  given  time;  that  is, 
accrued  interest  on  bonds  sold  is  not  kept  as  a  separate  account.  The  treasurer 
pays  interest  on  bonds,  but  he  cannot  give  the  amount  of  bonds  outstanding. 
The  treasurer  pays  all  coupons  presented,  if  genuine,  but  he  does  not  know 
whether  or  not  duplicates  are  paid  by  him  or  by  the  sub-Treasurers  elsewhere. 

After  the  foregoing  statement  of  extraordinary  discrepancies  and  differences 
of  debt  statements,  of  unlawful  changes  in  the  increase  and  decrease  of  debt,  and 
the  showing  of  looseness  of  administration,  of  absence  of  checks  in  the  issue  of 
bonds  and  legal  tender  notes,  by  which  the  Government  is  protected  only  by  the 
integrity  of  only  a  single  clerk,  and  of  the  singular  want  of  knowledge  the 
Treasurer  has  of  the  amount  of  outstanding  bonds  on  which  he  pays  interest,  the 
reader  may  be  well  prepared  for  the  following  statement  of  erasures  and  changes 
in  the  books  of  the  Treasury. 

APPARENT  ERASURES  AND  CHANGES  IN  THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  TREASURY. 

On  the  question  of  erasures  and  apparent  changes  in  the  books  of  the  Treasury 
is  the  following  testimony  of  Mr.  Woodville  (see  testimony,  pp.  110,  111,  112 
and  113): 

William  Woodville  recalled. 
By  the  Chairman  : 

Question.  By  whom  was  the  statement  that  I  hand  you  prepared  ?  (Exhibit- 
ing.)— Answer.  Prepared  by  Mr.  Byrne,  formerly  clerk  of  this  committee. 

Q.  Have  you  examined  it  by  the  books  so  as  to  be  able  yourself  to  testify  to  it  ? 
A.  Yes,  sir ;  I  can  testify  to  this  statement.  I  went  over  it  with  him  and  checked 
it  off  with  him  from  the  other  book. 

Q.  Have  you  recently  re-examined  it  ? — A.  Yes,  sir  ;  I  have  refreshed  my 
memory  about  it  to-day. 

Q.  Is  it  correct  ?— A.  It  is  correct,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  memoranda 
which  are  marked  there  ;  two  exceptions  which  I  have  specified  on  it. 

The  Chairman.  1  offer  that  in  evidence,  as  having  been  the  result  of  the  work 
of  Messrs.  Woodville  and  Byrne  together,  and  want  it  to  go  in. 


142 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 


Memorandum  of  erasures,  alterations,  and  changes  found  in  "  Register  of  Public  Debt  Warrants  " 
from  January  1,  1865,  to  December  31,  1869.    Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


Year. 


1865 


1865 


Date. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


1866 


1867 


3 

17 

6 

9 

10 

17 

Mar.  3 
16 

Apr.  17 
28 

May  8 
17 
20 

June  5 
19 
21 
22 

July   11 

Aug.     1 

5 

14 

Sept.  4 
14 
14 
21 
25 
30 

Nov.     8 

8 


27 

Dec.   16 

Jan.     6 

16 

22 

26 

30 

Apr.   18 

May     7 

12 

15 

28 

June    6 

6 

13 

25 

Julv  31 

31 

Aug.    2 

21 

23 

23 

Sept.    4 

21 

29 

29 

Oct.    31 

31 

31 

Nov.  16 

22 

Jan.      7 

7 

8 

8 

12 

15 

Feb.   19 

Mar.  29 

June  12 

27 

Aug.     8 

i  24 


Number  of 
warrants . 


1737 
1883 
2053 
2099 
2118 
2160 
2302 
2398 
2678 
2784 
2855 
2944 
29S3 
3116 
3238 
3250 
3275 
3445 
3628 
3629 
3672 
3718 
3881 . 

Scratched . 

:...do.... 
4025 

Scratched . 
4088 
4371 

4372 
4373 
4374 

4486 

4611 

4746 

4817 

4862 

4900 

4920 

5454 

5621 

5673 

5701 

5795 

5888 

5900 

5958 

6064 

6436 

643?  \ 

6473 

6608 

6632 

6634 

6742 

6926 

6938 

6940 

7232 

7234 

7234 

7331 

7378 

20 

22 

27 

30 

52 

83 

Scratched. 

397 

663 

704 

830 

S69 


Amount. 


Amount  altered  and  scratched 

Amount  altered  and  scratched  out 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 


canceled . 


.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do 

.do.. 

.do.. 

.do. 

.do.. 

.do.. 

.do.. 


Amouut  altered  and  scratched  out 

do 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

Amount  altered  and  scratched  out 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines  should  be  in  Treasury 

proper  

do 

do 

do 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 


.do. 
.do. 
.do. 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

.     ..do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

..do 

Amount  altered,  and  scratched  ;  canceled. 

do 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

Amount  altered  and  scratched  ;  canceled. 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 

Amount  altered  and  scratched  ;  canceled. 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 

do 

do 

do. 


$11,981  56 


40,434  54 

187,932  33 

669,920  00 

450,500  00 

18,392  10 

211,640  00 

1,087  12 

38,221  57 

26,003  09 

28,616  15 

57,020  75 

958,240  00 

20,462  17 

17,999  78 

625  00 

3,758  03 

976  89 

80  00 

243,638  70 , 

67,258  77 

1,743,700  00 


13,000,000  00 
"959  08 


220  00 

150  00 

200  00 

74  00 

82,548  33 

84,800  00 

304  19 

46.555  17 
154  62 

24,380  00 

1,136  34 

6,163  73 

107  71 

45,176  73 

89,900  00 

1,241,004  15 

6,791  87 

237,500  00 

20,637  67 

136,325  88 

29,731,300  00 

23,127,248  27 

7  49 

372,424  36 

30,906  43 

55,298  62 

585  97 

15,520  77 

52,485  35 

20,160.600  00 

8,000,000  00 

7,000,000  00 

19,981,750  00 

48,891  17 

3,535  02 

1,378,450  00 

2,621  89 

50,090  00 

29.556  95 
1,623  95 
5,129  71 

4,000,000  00 

4,963  40 

11,449  96 

103  00 

394,100  00 

788,000  00 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 
Memorandum — con  tinned. 


143 


Year. 


1868 


Date. 


1869 


24 

27 

31 

Sept.  21 

Oct.    17 


Dec.     2 

2 

Feb.  14 

June    3 

3 

July  31 

Aug.  27 
Sept.  12 
Oct.  31 
Nov.  12 
12 
Mar.  20 
July   31 


Sept.  30 

Oct,    30 

30 

Nov.  30 


Number 
Warrants. 


870    Amount  altered  and  scratched. 


875 

884 

934 

Scratched . 


1051 

1052 

62 

174 

174 

236 

259 
285 
346 
377 
377 
60 
135 


176 
186 

187 

203 


do 

do 

do 

Marked  in  margin  li  (Directed  same  to  issue  on 
November  1),"  and  the  entry  crossed  out  with 
black  lines,  whilst  the  amounts  in  figures  are  not 
erased.    The  aggregate  amount  of  the  warrant  is. 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines  ;  see  next  page 

do ' 

Amount  erased  with  lines  ;  canceled 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines $14,450  00 

do 527  42 


Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines ;  canceled 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines 

Amount  erased  with  red  lines  ;  canceled 

do 

do 

In  several  amounts  this  warrant  shows  alterations 
and  scratches 

In  the  recapitulation  for  the  month  of  July,  1869,  in 
the  item  of  "Redemption  of  the  Public  Debt," 
the  figures  are  altered  and  scratched  $12,561,467.49 

In  the  recapitulation  for  the  month  of  August, 
1869,  tbe  amounts  entered  are  in  several  items 
altered  and  scratched. 

Amount  altered  and  scratched 

do 

Amount  altered  and  scratched ;  premium  on  sinking- 
fund  principal 

Amount  altered  and  scratched ;  redemption  of  the 
public  debt 

In  the  month  of  November,  1869,  the  amounts 
entered  in  the  recapitulation  are  scratched  and 
altered  in  several  items. 


Amount. 


1.031  83 

401,000  00 

340.500  00 

350  00 


24,069,000  00 
356,400  00 
128,000  00 

$2,000,000  00 


14.977  42 

28,283,850  00 

200,000  00 

.      5  00 

23,735.382  50 

3,045,000  00 

37,661  50 

1,233,791  98 

20,824,402  08 


21,314,102  68 
5,630,541  84 

311,945  10 

7,265,416  00 


Room  65  Treasury  Building, 
Committee  on  Treasury  Accounts, 
Washington,  D.  C,  November  22,  1878. 

Senator:  I  make,  at  your  request,  a  copy  from  my  "memorandum  hook  of 
alterations  and  erasures,"  from  a  book  called  "  Register  of  Public  Debt  War- 
rants." 

In  my  examination  of  the  books  furnished  the  committee  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  I  have  thus  far  noted  1,120  alterations  and  changes  in  the  39  books  I 
have  examined. 

Most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

EDWD.  BYRNE. 
Hon.  H.  G.  Davis, 

Chairman,  &c. 

Q.  Have  you  made  examinations  of  different  books  in  the  Secretary's,  the 
Register's  and  the  Treasurer's  office  ? — A.  My  examination  was  particularly  in  tbe 
Register's  and  Treasurer's  books,  and  the  public  debt  of  the  Secretary  from  1860 
to  1871,  inclusive. 

Q.  Did  you  find  upon  those  books  alterations  or  errors  or  erasures  in  figures  ? 
— A.  Yes,  sir  ;  I  found  alterations,  scratches,  canceled  warrants. 

Q.  To  what  extent  ? — A.  In  the  Treasurer's  books  from  1860  to  1867,  inclusive, 
the  alterations,  scratches,  and  canceled  warrants  amounted  to  about  twelve  hun- 
dred in  round  numbers. 

Q.  Twelve  hundred  different  alterations  ? — A.  Alterations,  scratches,  and 
canceled  warrants,  anything  like  a  change  from  the  original  amount. 


144 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 


Q.  Just  explain  generally  what  you  found  upon  the  books  in  regard  to  erasures 
or  alterations  of  figures  ? — A.  Amounts  scratched  and  new  figures  substituted. 

2,500  ERASURES  IX  LEDGERS  INVOLVING  $280,000,000. 

These  changes,  alterations  and  erasures  involve  an  aggregate  sum  of  about 
$280,000,000  since  January  1st,  1365,  less  than  twenty  years.  Why  these 
changes  and  erasures  ?  What  transactions  do  they  cover  ?  What  is  hidden  be- 
neath them  ?  But  the  erasures  are  not  all.  Mr.  Woodville,  in  his  testimony, 
continues  : 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  leaves  being  entirely  out  of  the  books  that  appeared 
to  have  been  cut  out  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  some  of  the 
Treasurer's  accounts  are  that  way,  about  1861  and  1862. 

Q.  In  how  many  instances  ?  A.  Two,  four  leaves  in  one  case  and  five  in  the 
other ;  I  can  produce  the  books  if  you  wish. 

Below  will  be  found  the  detailed  statement  of  the  number  and  whereabouts  of 
these  erasures  : 

John  W.  Gentry,  acting  as  a  clerk  to   the  committee,  was  examined  and  testi- 
fied (see  testimony,  p.  165) : 
By  the  Chairman  : 

Question.  Have  you  made  a  careful  examination  of  certain  ledgers  of  the 
Register  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ? — Answer,  I  have. 

Q.  You  selected  one  of  the  number  that  you  have  examined  as  an  example  of 
all  that  you  have  examined  ? — A.  I  did  of  those  mentioned  in  this  statement. 

Q.  Is  the  statement  before  3-011  the  statement  you  wish  now  to  offer  as  being  a 
correct  statement  of  the  erasures  and  apparent  alterations  on  the  books  you  ex- 
amined ?— A.  It  is. 

Again  (see  testimony,  p.  174): 

The  eight  (8)  ledgers  enumerated  below  have  also  been  examined,  with  the  re- 
sults as  stated. 

Three  (3)  ledgers  from  office  of  Register. 


Title  of  ledger. 


1.  Interior  appropriation 

ledger  No.  4. 

2.  Naval     appropriation 

ledger  No.  6. 

3.  Military  appropriation 

ledger  No.  13. 


Period. 


From  July  1,  1861,  to  June  30,  1868. 
From  July  1,  1861,  to  June  30,  1866. 
From  July  1,  1867,  to  June  30,  1871. 


Number  of  erasures  and  ap- 
parent alterations. 


One  hundred  and  fifty-three. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-seven. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-eight. 


Six  (6)  ledgers  from  office  of  Secretary  of  Treasury. 


Title  of  ledger. 


Period. 


4.  Interior  appropriation    From  July  1,  1860,  to  June  30,  1868. . 

ledger  No.  3. 

5.  Naval     appropriation    From  July  1,  1860,  to  June   30,1863.. 
ledger  No.  5. 

From  July  1,  1863,  to  June  30,  1867. . 


8.  Naval     appropriation 
ledger  No.  6. 

7.  Naval     appropriation 

ledger  No.  7. 

8.  Military  appropriation 

ledger  No.  10. 


From  July  1,  1867,  to  June  30,  1875. . 
From  July  1,  1859,  to  June  30,  1863. . 


Number  of  erasures  and  ap- 
parent alterations. 


Two  hundred  and  ninety-six. 
One  hundred  and  ninety-three. 
Six  hundred  and  sixty-eight. 
Four  hundred  and  fifty-seven. 
One  hundred  and  sixty-eight. 


Three  ledgers  from  Register's  office,  containing 428  erasures  and  apparent  alterations. 

Six  ledgers  from  Secretary's  office,  containing 2,099  erasures  and  apparent  alterations. 

Total  in  9  ledgers 2,527 

I  certify  that  I  have  carefully  examined  the  nine  (9;  ledgers  enumerated  above, 
and  that  the  foregoing  is  a  true  statement  of  the  erasures  and  apparent  altera- 
tions. JNO.  W.  GENTRY,  Clerk. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  145 

Q.  (By  Mr.  Dawes.)  In  the  cases  where  your  tables  show  what  are  called 
erasures  and  alterations,  are  you  able  to  tell  what  the  figures,  as  they  now  exist, 
have  been  substituted  for  ? — A.  I  am  not. 

These  scratches  and  erasures  do  not  occur  wholly  in  the  daybooks  or  journals 
but  in  ledgers,  and  upon  this  point  take  the  testimony  of  an  experienced  account- 
ant, Major  Power  (see  testimony,  p.  91)  : 

By  the  Chairman  : 

#  *  *  #  *  #  ## 

Q.  Do  you  know  whether  or  not  there  are  scratches,  changes  or  alterations, 
whatever  you  choose  to  call  them,  upon  the  books  of  the  department  ;  take  the 
Secretary's  office  ? — A.  Scratches  and  mis-entries  occur,  I  believe,  in  all  sj'stems 
of  accounts,  and  the  Secretary's  office  of  the  Treasury  Department  is  no  excep- 
tion to  that.     A  clerk  may  make  a  mistake  at  any  time. 

Q.  Is  that  likely  to  follow  from  the  day  book  or  journal  into  the  ledger  ? — xV. 
It  would  be  in  the  journal  or  register. 

Q.  But  it  ought  not  to  be  in  the  ledger  ? — A.  No  scratches  cr  mis-entries  should 
occur  in  the  ledger. 

Q.  You  keep  what  is  known  as  a  register  or  journal,  and  post  from  that  into 
the  ledger,  do  you  not  ? — A.  Yes,  sir. 

SOMETHING  VOTERS  MAY  WELL  CONSIDER. 

The  American  voter  may  well  stop  and  consider,  what  the  wide  discrepancies 
mean,  what  these  erasures  of  2,527  in  the  ledgers  of  the  Registers'  and  Secretaries' 
offices  portend.  Time  hides  many  things,  destroyed  leaves  and  cut  pages  conceal 
others,  but  there  is  one  thing  that  the  American  people  can  have  done  and  that  is 
what  Governor  Hendricks  suggests,  "  the  books  of  the  Government  opened  for  ex- 
amination," by  faithful  and  honest  public  servants. 

After  the  foregoing  record  is  examined,  the  American  voter  U  well  prepared  to 
consider  the  following  partial  list  of  defalcations  which  have  occurred  during  the 
past  twelve  years,  defalcations  upon  the  part  of  the  servants  of  the  American 
people. 


DEFALCATIONS  OF  UNITED  STATES  OFFICIALS 

DURING  THE  ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  PRESIDENTS  GRANT,  HAYES 
AND  ARTHUR,  COMPILED  FROM  THE  PUBLIC  RECORDS. 


TOTAL   AMOUNT   STOLEN,    SIXTEEN    MILLION   EIGHT     EUNDKED   AND     SIXTY-EIGHT 
THOUSAND  FOUIt  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY  DOLLARS  AND  SIXTY  CENTS. 


This  does  not  include  money  stolen  from  the  Government  under  the  "Whiskey 

Ring  frauds,  Star  Route  frauds,  Post  Office  Department  defalcations, 

Burnside's  frauds,  Signal  Service   (Howgate's)  frauds,  or  the 

Naval  Medical  Bureau  frauds,  or  the  defalcation  of  the 

Disbursing  Clerk  of  the   State  Department. 

Statement  of  amount  of  defalcations  of  Officers  of  the  United  States  for  the 
fiscal  years  of  1869  to  1883,  both  inclusive,  as  shown  by  the  certified  transcripts 
of  the  Accounting  Officers  of  the  Treasury  Department  filed  in  the  U.  S.  Courts 
and  by  the  annual  reports  of  the  Solicitors  of  the  Treasury  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  and  to  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  Slates. 

10 


146  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

Tliis  statement  embraces  only  defalcations  where  suit  has  been  brought  by  the 
United  States  against  the  defaulting  officers  or  their  bondsmen  and  does  not  in- 
clude suits  against  defaulting  Post  Office  Officials. 

The  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury  is  directed  by  section  272  of  the  Revised 
Statutes  of  the  United  States  :  "To  make  an  annual  Report  to  Congress  of  such 
"officers  as  shall  have  failed  to  make  settlement  of  their  accounts  for  the  pre- 
" ceding  fiscal  year." 

2^0  such  report  as  is  required  by  this  mandatory  law  has  been  made  from  1369 
to  the  close  of  the  last  fiscal  year. 

Had  this  law  been  obeyed,  the  country  could  have  the  satisfaction,  at  least,  of 
knowing  the  amount  it  has  lost  by  the  defalcations  of  its  officers,  the  names  of 
the  defaulting  officers  and  whether  they  are  still  in  office  or  not.  The  amounts 
of  defalcations  upon  which  no  suit  has  been  brought  cannot  be  obtained  from  any 
official  publication.  It  is  the  secret  of  the  Republican  Officials  and  the  Republi- 
can party. 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1869 $2,047,027  02 

Collections  by  suit  unknown. . 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1870 $453,937  78 

Collections  by  suit  unknown. 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  80,  1871 $3,606,6G1  06 

Collection  by  suit 5,330  82 

Loss  to  Government $3,601,330  74 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  80,  1872 $2, 767,857  86 

Collections  by  suit 104,423  13 

Loss  to  Government $2,663,434  23 

Total  amount  of  defalcations  for  the  four  fiscal  years  preceding 

June  30th,  1372 $8,875,484  22 

Total  collected  by  suit _ 109,753  45 

Total  loss  to  Government $8,765,729  97 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  80,  1873 $1,206,936,55 

Collections  by  suit ._ 170,781  82 

Loss  to  Government „ $1,036,155  23 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  80,  1874 $760,575  72 

Collections  by  suit .'_. 40,326  12 

Loss  to  Government .._         $720,249  60 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1875 $1,381,119  28 

Collections  by  suit 25,072  43 

Loss  to  Government .-.. $1,356,046  85 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1876 $1,298,616  06 

Collections  by  suit - 36,468  48 

Loss  to  Government - $1,262,147  58 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  147 

Total  amount  of  defalcations  for  the  four  fiscal  years  preceding 

June30,  1376 $4,647,247  61 

Total  collected  by  suit 272,648  35 

Total  loss  to  Government $4,374,599  26 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1877 _  $794,451  64 

Collections  by  suit 23,249  99 

Loss  to  Government _ _  $771,201  65 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1878_ $264,010  35 

Collections  by  suit 8,235  62 

Loss  to  Government _ _ $255,774  73 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1879 $231,854  94 

Collections  from  suits 4,568  30 

Loss  to  Government $227,286  64 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 1880 $485,679  09 

Collections  from  suit _ _ 15,418  30 

Loss  to  the  Government $475,260  79 

Total  amount  of  defalcations  during  the  four  fiscal  years  preced- 
ing June  30,    1880.. $1,775,998  02 

Total  collections  .by  suit ,  51,472  21 

Total  loss  to  the  Governments $1,724,523  81 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1881 $488,477  97 

Collections  by  suit 11.785  04 

Loss  to  Government $476,692  93 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1882 $427,920  24 

Collectkms  by  suit 1,224  14 

Loss  to  Government $420,196  10 

Defalcations  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1883 $653,835  56 

Collections  by  suit 5,924  32 

$347,911  J24 
Total  amount  of  Defalcations  during  the  three  years  preceding 

June  30,  1883. $1,569,733  77 

Total  collections  by  suit 18,933  50 

Total  loss  to  Government $1,550,800  27 


RECAPITULATION. 


Amount  of  defalcations  under  Grant's  first  Administration $8,875,483  22 

Amount  of  defalcation  under  Grant's  second  Administration...  4,547,247  61 

Amount  of  defalcation  under  Hayes' Administration 1,775,996  02 

An    :nt  of  defalcation  under  Arthur's  three  years'  Administra- 
tion   1,569,733  77 


Total  defalcations $16,868,460  Qi 


148  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM. 

This  makes  an  average  yearly  defalcation  during  the  fifteen  years  preceding 
June  30th,  1883,  of  one  million  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand  five 
hundred  and  sixty-four  dollars  ($1,124,564.00). 

The  amounts  of  defalcations  by  Post  Office  Department  officials  during  the 
time  stated  above,  are  so  intermingled  in  the  Official  Reports  with  other  matters 
that  they  cannot  be  ascertained. 

This  statement  does  not  include  the  money  stolen  under  the  Whiskey  Ring 
frauds,  Star  Route  frauds,  Howgate's  Signal  Service  frauds,  Burnside's  P.  O. 
frauds,  Navy  Medical  Bureau  frauds,  or  other  frauds  of  that  nature. 

Section  176,  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States  provides  that  bonds  shall  be 
given  by  Disbursing  Officers  of  the  Government,  satisfactory  to  the  Solicitor  of 
the  Treasury,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  authorized  to  cause  the  bonds 
to  be  renewed,  strengthened  and  increased,  at  his  pleasure. 

Section  3144  has  a  similar  provision  concerning  Internal  Revenue  Officers' 
Bonds,  with  the  substitution  of  the  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury  for  the 
Solicitor. 

The  small  percentage  of  collections  on  the  suits  as  shown  by  the  Reports  of  the 
Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  makes  it  clear  that  the  laws  above  cited  have  not  been 
executed.  The  collections  on  the  Bonds  of  the  defaulting  officers  do  not  amount 
to  five  per  cent,  of  the  defalcations. 

Section  3622  of  the  Revised  Statutes  directs  that : 

"  Every  officer  or  agent  of  the  United  States  who  receives  public  money  which 
"  he  is  not  authorized  to  retain  as  salary,  pay  or  emolument,  shall  render  his  ac- 
"  counts  monthly.  Such  accounts  with  the  vouchers  necessary  to  the  correct  and 
"  prompt  settlement  thereof  shall  be  sent  to  the  Bureau  to  which  they  pertain, 
"  within  ten  days  after  the  expiration  of  each  successive  month,  and  after  examina 
"  tion  there,  shall  be  passed  to  the  proper  accounting  officer  of  the  Treasury. 
"  Disburing  officers  of  the  Navy  shall  render  their  accounts  and  vouchers  direct 
"  to  the  proper  accounting  officer  of  the  Treasury." 

This  section  also  gives  authority  to  the  Heads  of  the  Department  to  prescribe 
such  other  rules  as  they  may  deem  necessary  for  the  prompt  settlement  of  these 
accounts,  and  "the  public  interest  may  require." 

Had  these  laws  been  faithfully  executed,  it  is  obvious  that  no  officer  could  nave 
defaulted  over  one  mouth  without  discovery,  and  the  enormous  losses  to  the  Gov- 
ernment would  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  if  not  altogether  prevented. 
The  failure  of  the  Government  officials  to  execute  these  laws  gives  the  sureties 
of  defaulting  officers  a  good  defence  against  the  United  States,  as  will  be  seen 
by  the  following  extract  from  the  Sunday  Herald,  of  Washington,  D.  C„  of 
July  27th,  1884  : 

"  It  is  said  the  bondsmen  of  ex-Disbursing  Officer  Burnside,  of  the  Post  Office 
"  Department,  will  claim  that  the  law,  in  settling  that  officer's  accounts,  was  not 
"  complied  with,  and  that  they  are  not  therefore  liable;  that,  had  the  Department 
"  settled  the  accounts  as  the  law  required,  it  would  have  been  discovered  that 
"  Burnside  was  deficient  in  his  accounts  many  years  earlier,  and  at  a  time  when 
"  the  account  was  small  and  the  deficiency  could  have  been  made  good.  One  of 
"  the  bondsmen  said  to  the  Herald  last  week  :  '  We  cannot  be  held  responsible 
"  for  lack  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Government  officials  whose  duty  it  was  to 
"  examine  these  accounts/" 

The  following  statement  copied  from  "  The  Post"  of  Washington,  D.  C,  of 
June  20th,  1884,  illustrates  the  fact  that  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  public 
funds  have  not  been  executed. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  149 

J.  O.  P.  Burnside  was  appointed  Disbursing  Officer  of  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment, in  1876.  He  was  appointed  from  Illinois,  upon  the  recommen- 
dation, it  is  reported,  of  General  John  A.  Logan,  now  candidate  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent on  the  Republican  ticket.  It  will  be  seen  he  commenced  defaulting  as  soon 
as  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office.  He  continued  doing  so  with  perfect 
impunity  for  seven  years,  though  his  office  and  his  accounts  were  in  the  same 
building  with  the  Auditor  of  the  Treasury  for  the  Post  Office  Department,  and 
accessible  every  day  to  the  examination  of  the  Comptrolling  officers  of  the  Treas- 
ury. As  a  matter  of  fact,  had  not  public  attention  been  called  to  Burnside's 
losses  in  a  fraudulent  oil  speculation,  which  caused  his  accounts  to  be  examined, 
the  defalcations  would  not  now  be  known.  The  investigation  shows  thus  far  the 
defalcation  of  between  eighty  and  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


U 


BURNSIDE  SURRENDERED. 


"  HIS  BONDSMEN  REFUSE  TO  AID  IN  SHIELDING  HIM  ANY  LONGER. 


*'  THEIR  ACTION    THE    OUTCOME   OF   DEVELOPMENTS  MADE  YESTERDAY,    SHOWING 
SYSTEMATIC   STEALING— ANOTHER  DISBURSING   OFFICER   SHORT. 

"  The  developments  in  the  various  Government  defalcations  were  of  a  startling 
"  nature  yesterday,  one  more  being  added  to  this  number,  besides  an  accumula- 
"  tion  against  the  already  arrested  men.  The  investigation  of  the  accounts  of 
"Col.  Burnside,  late  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  has  resulted  in  some  new 
"revelations  as  to  the  manner  and  extent  of  his  frauds.  His  rearrest  was  the  out-' 
"  come  of  the  investigation  now  going  on.  It  seems  that  in  addition  to  diverting 
"to  his  private  use  some»$45,000of  the  funds  drawn  from  the  Treasury,  Burnside 
"has  been  in  the  habit  of  pocketing  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  waste  paper, 
"  old  carpets,  furniture  and  the  material  of  the  Post  Office  Department.  The 
"  revenue  arising  from  this  source,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  is  about  $5,000 
"  per  year,  which  Col.  Burnside  ought  to  have  turned  into  the  Treasury.  His 
"  accounts  show  that  the  first  year  he  held  the  office,  which  was  in  1876,  he  de- 
"  posited  in  the  Treasury  on  this  account,  $4,194.  Each  succeeding  year  shows 
"  a  deposit,  in  some  cases  exceeding  $1,000,  and  for  two  years  (79  and  '81)  no  de- 
posit was  made  at  all.  It  is  the  presumption  that  the  amounts  realized  from 
"this  source  increased  each  jrear,  but  Col.  Burnside's  deposits  largely  decreased. 

"  Col.  Henderson  and  Mr.  Lamson,  of  the  inspectors'  office,  have  been  investi- 
"  gating  the  books  kept  by  Col.  Burnside,  and  they  found  that  thsre  is  no  record 
"of  any  sales  of  material  of  this  kind  any  where  in  the  accounts  of  this  disbursing 
"officer.  The  only  way  that  they  were  able  to  trace  the  amount  was  by  exam- 
"ining  the  books  of  the  men  who  had  bought  this  material  from  Col.  Burnside. 
"  They  found  the  receipts  and  the  checks  which  had  been  paid  to  him,  and  in 
"  the  investigation  so  far,  which  is  not  half  completed,  they  have  been  able  to 
"  trace  over  $12,000  which  Burnside  has  received  since  1876  on  account  of  the  sale 
"  of  waste  material.  The  peculations  appear  to  have  begun  with  Burnside's 
"entry  into  his  late  position,  and  the  sum  of  them  will,  it  is  expected,  prove  fai 
* '  more  extensive  before  the  inve'stigation  is  completed. 


150  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

i 

"  In  the  police  court,  Prosecuting  Attorney  Thomas  stated  to  the  Court  that 
"there  was  another  charge  against  Col.  Burnside  which  was  essentially  different 
"  from  the  first  one.  In  this  case  he  is  charged  with  converting  to  his  own  use, 
"$8,000,  which  he  realized  from  the  sale  of  waste  paper.  As  to  the  matter  of 
"  hail  he  would  ask  $5,000  bail. 

"  Judge  Snell  said  that  the  defendant  was  already  under  $20,000  bail,  and  he 
"  was  not  disposed  to  fix  the  bail  at  a  large  figure. 

"Judge  Snell  said  the  $8,000  charged  here  was  not  all  taken  at  once,  and  to 
■  '*  cover  the  $8,000  there  would  have  to  be  severel  warrants  taken  out  for  the  sev- 
"  eral  embezzlements.  The  Court  fixed  the  bail  at  $2,500,  and  the  defendant 
"  waived  examination,  and  the  case  was  sent  to  the  grand  jury.  Mr.  Eichard  J. 
"Beall  afterwards  appeared  and  went  on  his  bond  for  this  amount. 

"  Later  in  the  day  the  gentleman  who  had  furnished  the  $20,000  bond  for  Col. 
"Burnside  upon  the  occasion  of  his  first  arrest,  decided  that  as  the  latest  devel- 
opments showed  a  constant  stealing  for  some  years,  they  should  not  shield  him 
"any  longer.  With  this  view,  Detective  Raff  and  Block  visited  Col.  Burnside's 
''house,  and  lie  was  again  arrested  and  taken  to  the  Fifth  police  station.  His 
"bondsmen  were  W.  B.  Baldwin,  George  H.  Plant,  George  T.  Keen,  E.  B. 
"  Fadely  and  R  J.  Beall.  In  the  criminal  court  to-day  they  will  formally  sur- 
render the  prisoner." 

It  is  thus  shown  by  the  official  records  that  a  great  many  dishonest  men  have 
been  appointed  to  office  since  1868,  and  entrusted  with  the  custody  of  public 
funds.  That  immense  amounts  of  the  public  money  have  been  stolen  by  these 
officials  regularly  each  and  every  year  ;  That  the  officers  of  the  Government  hav- 
ing charge  of  the  bonds  of  these  appointees  have  failed  to  secure  from  them  sub- 
stantial bonds,  as  is  their  duty  under  the  law ;  That  the  law  requiring  prompt* 
monthly  settlement  of  the  accounts  of  these  custodians  of  public  funds  have  not 
been  observed  ;  That,  by  reason  of  the  failure  to  execute  these  laws,  the  bonds  of 
these  defaulting  officers  even  when  good,  are  released  ;  That  the  First  Comp- 
troller of  the  Treasury  fails  to  obey  Section  272  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the 
United  States  ;  That,  by  his  disregard  of  that  law,  the  country  is  kept  in  igno- 
rance as  to  the  names  of  its  defaulters,  whether  the  defaulters  are  still  in  office  or 
not,  the  amounts  that  have  been  stolen,  and  whether  any  of  the  thieves  have  been 
criminally  prosecuted  or  not ;  and  last,  it  is  clearly  shown  that  these  annual  de- 
falcations are  on  the  increase  instead  of  being  diminislied. 

It  is  respectfully  submitted  to  the  voters  of  the  United  States,  that  there 
nothing  in  the  record  of  James  G.  Blaine  to  encourage  a  hope  that  if  elected 
to  the  Presidency  he  would  reform  these  corrupt  practices  and  abuses  of 
the  Republican  officials,  while  the  record  of  Grovcr  Cleveland  gives  every  evi- 
dence that  his  election  will  cause  a  summary  stop  to  these  enormous  annual 
thefts,  and  that  the  laws  for  the  protection  of  public  funds  will  be  rigidly,  hon- 
estly and  faithfully  executed. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  151 


DEFALCATIONS, 


Thefts,  forgeries,  perjuries,  and  general  demoralization  of  the  officers  in  the  Civil 
Service  of  the  U.  8.  Government  since  1880,  as  shown  by  the  sworn  testimony  of 
flie  Examiners  of  the  Department  of  Justice  before  the  Committee  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  Expenditures  in  the  Department  of  Justice,  during  the  first 
session  of  the  48th  Congress,  and  by  the  Official  Reports  of  the  Government  Offi- 
cers. 

Note. — The  marginal  figures  give  the  page  of  the  Congressional  Report  the  evidence  is  printed 
on. 
See  Mis.  Doc.  38,  Part  1,  48th  Congress,  1st  Session. 

It  is  proven  by  this  evidence,  which  is  entirely  from  Republican  sources,  that 
many  appointments  have  been  made  to  offices  of  trust  and  responsibility  of  per- 
sons who  are  "defaulters,"  "thieves,"  "drunkards,"  "blackmailers,"  "liars," 
"convicts,"  "ex-convicts,"  "fugitives  from  justice,"  "assassins,"  "gamblers," 
"embezzlers  of  public  funds,"  "bribe  takers,"  "  extortionists,"  "  persons  under 
indictment  for  violation  of  Internal  Revenue  laws,"  "horse  thieves,"  "forgers," 
one  man  who  was  under  indictment  for  murdering  an  Internal  Revenue  offi- 
cer of  the  United  States,  and  a  great  many  other  incompetent,  inefficient  and 
worthless  men. 

It  is  proven  by  the  sworn  testimony  of  the  officers  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  that  many  of  these  officers  of  the  Government  have  arrested  citizens 
on  frivolous  charges  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making  fees  or  extorting  money 
from  them  for  their  release,  thus  harassing  and  causing  heavy  loss  and  injury 
to  innocent  persons,  by  means  of  the  appointments  held  from  the  United 
States. 

It  is  proven  that  the  character  of  these  officers  of  the  Government  was  a 
degradation  of  and  reproach  to  the  public  service. 

It  is  proven  that  in  one  District  alone,  where  seventy  U.  S.  officials  were  em- 
ployed, a  large  majority  had  passed  on  the  Government,  false,  fraudulent  and 
fictitious  accounts  and  committed  perjury  in  doing  so. 

It  is  proven  that  in  some  cases  the  character  of  the  U.  S.  officials  was  so 
bad  that  the  judges  of  the  U.  S.  Courts  refused  to  permit  them  to  exercise 
the  duties  of  their  offices  in  connection  with  the  Court,  and  they  were  thus 
indirectly  forced  out  of  the  employment  of  the  U.  S.  without  the  consent  of 
their  superior  officers,  who  had  failed  to  remove  them. 

It  is  proven  that  many  of  these  men  have  been  appointed  to  office  and  re- 
tained, when  their  crimes  were  a  matter  of  public  and  general  notoriety. 

It  is  proven  that  the  Government  has  been  robbed  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars  by  these  men. 

It  is  proven  that  a  great  many  persons  have  been  appointed  to  office  where 
their  services  were  not  needed. 

It  is  proven  that  one  U.  S.  Judge  was  in  the  habit  of  borrowing  money 
from  Corporations   and  other  parties  having  suits  pending  in  his  Court. 

It  is  proven  that  another  U.  S.  Judge  was  a  gambler  and  drunkard  and  is 
still  on  the  bench  he  has  disgraced. 


152  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

It  is  proven  that  a  great  many  of  these  men  have  been  retained  and  many 
promoted  in  office,  and  that  in  at  least  two  cases  the  President  has  appointed 
to  higher  and  more  lucrative  and  honorable  offices,  men,  "who,  according  to 
the  official  reports  of  the  Examiners  of  the  Department,  in  addition  to  their 
sworn  testimony,  have  perjured  themselves  and  passed  false  and  fraudulent 
vouchers  on  the  Government. 

It  is  proven  that  in  the  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving  of  the  Treasury 
Department  where  the  U.  S.  Currency  is  printed,  such  is  the  carelessness  of 
those  officers  of  the  Government  having  custody  of  the  funds  of  the  United 
States,  that  thousands  of  dollars  are  found  by  workmen,  not  in  employment 
of  the  Government,  lying  in  the  rubbish  on  the  floor  of  one  of  the  rooms  of 
the  Bureau;  and  it  is  also  proven  that  the  Disbursing  Officer  of  the  Bureau 
is  a  defaulter  to  the  Government. 

It  is  proven  that  $47,000.00  was  stolen  in  broad  daylight  from  the  vaults  of 
the  Treasury;  that  the  thief  was  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury;  that  the  Govern- 
ment accepted  the  thief  as  a  witness  for  the  U.  S.  against  a  person  not  con- 
nected with  the  Government  who  had  been  induced  by  the  thief  to  hide  the 
money,  and,  finally,  that  the  Government  compounded  the  theft  by  taking 
$12,500,  and  permitting  the  thieves  to  have  the  balance  and  go  free 

It  is  proven  by  the  defalcations  in  the  Signal  Service  Bureau,  in  the  Dis- 
bursing Office  of  the  State  Department  and  the  frauds  in  the  Bureau  of 
Medicine  and  Surgery,  of  the  Navy  Department,  that  the  Government  can  be 
robbed  and  plundered  for  years  with  perfect  impunity  and  that  the  frauds  are 
never  discovered  until  there  is  a  change  in  the  Head  of  the  Bureau. 

Henry  W.  Howgate,  a  first  lieutenant  in  the  U.  S.  Army,  was  detailed  to  act 
as  Disbursing  Officer  and  Purchasing  Agent  of  the  Signal  Corps  of  the  U.  S. 
Army,  and  stationed  at  Washington  city,  D.  C,  under  the  administration  of 
General  Albert  G.  Myers,  Chief  Signal  Officer,  and  continued  holding  those 
offices  for  several  years  till  the  death  of  General  Myers  and  appointment  of  Gene- 
ral W.  B.  Hazen,  when  Howgate  resigned.  Howgate  was  a  formidable  com- 
petitor of  General  Hazen's  for  the  appointment  of  Chief  Signal  Officer.  General 
Hazen,  soon  after  his  appointment,  caused  an  examination  of  Howgates's  ac- 
counts to  be  made,  and  it  was  found  that  Howgate  had  been  regularly  and  sys- 
tematically robbing  the  Government  by  means  of  false  vouchers,  of  large  sums 
of  money  for  a  number  of  years.  General  Hazen  made  affidavit  before  IT.  J3. 
Commissioner  Bundy,  August  10th,  1881,  that  Henry  W.  Howgate,  on  the  15th  day 
of  February,  1879,  while  then  a  First  Lieutenant  in  the  IT.  S.  Army  and  the  Dis- 
bursing Officer  of  the  Signal  Service  Corps,  feloniously  converted  to  his  own  use 
the  sum  of  $12,000.00  of  Government  funds  ;  on  the  15th  of  October,  1879, 
$11,800.00  ;  on  the  11th  of  August,  1880,  $12,180.12,  making  a  total  of  $40,- 
380. 12.     Howgate  was  arrested  on  this  charge  and  gave  bail. 

Additional  frauds  being  soon  after  discovered,  he  was  again  arrested,  and 
being  unable  to  rgive  the  bond  required  he  was  sent  to  jail.  A  suit  at  law  was 
filed  against  him  August  24th,  1881,  upon  the  affidavit  of  the  U.  S.  officers,  in 
which  it  is  charged  that  he  had  unlawfully  drawn  from  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States  from  November  11th,  1878,  to  September  1st,  1880,  $101,257.08. 

Howgate  remained  in  jail  some  months  unable  to  give  bail.  Being  permitted 
by  the  U.  S.  Warden  to  leave  jail  to  visit  his  residence,  he  absconded  and  cannot 
be  found.  It  appears  from  the  investigation  of  this  case  that  no  check  was 
placed  upon  him  by  the  officer  having  control  of  him  and  his  accounts,  and  had 
General  Myers  lived  and  retained  his  position  of  Chief  Signal  Officer,  Howgate 
would  still  be  plundering  the  Government. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  153 

A  change  of  the  head  of  the  Department  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  discovery  of  the 
frauds. 

Howgate's  fraudulent  accounts  passing  the  accounting  and  eomptrolling  officers  of 
the  Treasury  for  years  without  exposure. 


FRAUDS,  THEFTS,  DEFALCATIONS  AND  GROSS  IR- 
REGULARITIES IN  THE  TREASURY  DEPARTMENT. 


Extract  from  Washington  "Post,"  May,  1883. 
THE  OTTMAN   CASE. 


DEVIOUS   WATS   OF   JUSTICE — THE   STORY  OF  A  REMARKABLE   COMPROMISE. 

(From  the  New  York  Times. ) 

Some  of  the  peculiar  ways  in  which  justice  is  administered  or  "dispensed 
with  "  in  the  District  of  Columbia  are  shown  in  the  history  of  the  Ottman  case. 
Eight  years  ago  a  package  of  new  legal  tender  notes,  amounting  in  value  to 
$47,097,  was  stolen  from  the  cash  room  of  the  United  States  Treasury.  The  thief 
was  a  clerk  named  Halleck,  one  of  whose  accomplices  was  W.  H.  Ottman,  a  liquor 
seller.  These  persons  were  arrested,  and  Halleck  was  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  be  imprisoned.  An  application  for  a  new  trial  having  been  granted,  he  was 
released,  and  he  became  a  witness  for  the  Government  against  Ottman,  who  was 
indicted  and  twice  tried.  Each  of  the  two  juries  failed  to  agree,  and  it  is  said 
that  they  yielded  to  secret  influences  which  have  been  so  potent  in  other  and 
more  important  trials  which  have  taken  place  in  the  old  District  court  house. 
Proceedings  in  the  criminal  cases  were  abandoned,  but  by  civil  suit  and  seizure 
a  large  part  of  the  stolen  money  was  recovered.  A  package -of  $14,500  in  the 
identical  notes  which  had  been  stolen  wa3  captured  in  a  bank  where  Ottman  had 
placed  it,  and  the  entire  sum  recovered  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer 
of  theiUnited  States  was  $31,525.  The  case  of  the  Government  was  a  clear  one. 
Fair  trials  before  incorruptible  juries  would  have  resulted  in  the  punishment  of 
the  thief  and  his  accomplices,  and  the  restoration  of  at  least  three-fourths  of 
their  plunder  to  its  rightful  owner, 

Last  Summer,  seven  years  after  the  date  when  Halleck  stole  the  money,  a  com- 
promise was  made,  the  details  of  which  seem  to  have  been  made  public  for  the 
first  time  a  few  days  ago.  The  Hon.  Kichard  Crowley,  we  are  told,  appeared  as 
Ottman's  attorney,  empowered  to  represent  him  in  the  negotiations.  Of  the 
sum  in  the  Treasury  $12,500  was  paid  to  the  Department  of  Justice,  and  the  re- 
mainder, $19,525,  was  given  to  Mr.  Crowley  for  his  client,  so  that  the  Govern- 
ment, having  in  its  possession  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  stolen  money,  gave 
back  $19,525  to  one  of  'the  thieves,  and  has  only  $12,500  to  show  as  the  fruit  of 
its  detectives'  and  attorneys'  labors. 

"Why  did  not  the  Government,  having  a  clear  case  against  the  thieves,  prose- 
cute them  successfully?  Was  the  Attorney-General  convinced  by  two  mistrials 
that  an  honest  jury  could  not  be  secured?  Ottman  was  entitled  to  all  of  the  cap- 
tured money  or  no  part  of  it.  By  agreeing  to  the  compromise  he  seems  to  have 
admitted  his  guilt.  Why  did  the  present  Attorney-General  allow  this  compro- 
mise to  be  made,  thereby  releasing  a  large  part  of  the  money  which  had  been  re* 


154  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

covered  by  hard  work  and  at  heavy  cost?  Was  it  not  possible  by  further  pro- 
ceedings to  so  firmly  establish  the  Government's  title  to  this  money  that  no  one 
could  reasonably  claim  it?  These  are  some  of  the  questions  suggested  by  the 
history  of  this  remarkable  case. 

Extract,  from  Post,  May  18,  1883. 

TJ.    S.    MONEY  THROWN   ABOUT   LOOSE   AND   UNCARED   FOR;   A   FIND  OF  TEN 

THOUSAND   DOLLARS. 

Last  Monday  morning  about  8  o'clock,  as  two  employes  in  E.  N.  Gray  & 
Co.'s  foundry,  John  N.  Burgee  and  George  S.  Langley,  were  engaged  in  re- 
moving an  old  punch  from  the  punch  room  of  the  Treasury  Department,  the 
latter  espied  a  bundle  of  green  paper  under  a  truck,  and  on  stooping  to  ex- 
amine it,  saw  the  face  of  a  $1,000  bill.  Calling  Burgee  to  him  he  pointed  it 
out  and  said:  "Do  you  want  some  money?  There's  a  thousand  dollars." 
Burgee  picked  up  the  package,  which  was  of  ten  new  bills  neatly  tied  and 
with  slips  of  paper  crossed  on  the  back.  An  employe  who  had  been  in  the 
room  frequently  was  called  and  asked  to  have  the  superintendent  take  charge 
of  the  money.  The  latter  had  not  yet  arrived,  but  when  he  did,  accompanied 
by  several  others,  he  came  to  the  punch  room  to  learn  how  the  money  had 
been  found.  Inquiry  at  the  department  yesterday  failed  to  reveal  who  had 
obtained  the  money,  but  Mr.  Langley  said  that  the  gentlemen  who  received 
it  from  the  attendant  was  a  stout  man,  dressed  in  blue  clothes. 

Had  this  workman  pocketed  this  $10,000.00,  the  probability  is  no  one 
would  have  ever  heard  of  the  Government's  loss  outside  of  the  Treasury 
Department. 

Omer  D.  Cole,  Disbursing  Officer  of  the  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving 
of  the  Treasury  Department,  whose  accounts  were  examined  soon  after  the 
Burnside  defalcation,  was  discovered  to  be  five  thousand  dollars  deficient  in 
his  accounts. 

ALABAMA. 

M.  C.  Osborn  was  U.  S.  Marshal  for  the  Middle  and  Southern  Districts  of  Ala- 
lama  during  the  year  1882  and  part  of  '83. 

P.  128.— Special  Examiners  Boman, Nightingale  and  Wiegand  of  the  Department 
of  Justice,  jointly  reported,  August  11, 1883,  to  the  Attorney-General  that  Osborn 
"was  utterly  incompetent  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office;"  and  that  they 
found  the  most  flagrant  abuses  existing — "many  of  the  most  untrustworthy  and 
"  disreputable  persons  in  the  district  were  employed  in  the  service."  "Almost 
"  every  Deputy  Marshal  in  the  District  had  presented  false,  fictitious  and  fraudu- 
lent accounts"  against  the  United  States. 

The  amount  of  fraudulent  accounts  presented  by  Marshal  Osborn  was 
$7,490.20. 

Osborn  remained  Marshal  till  his  term  of  office  expired.  He  was  not  re- 
moved. 

P  413-416. — Examiners  Wiegand  and  Bowman,  of  Department  of  Justice,  repoi'ted 
to  Attorney-General  Brewster,  August  3,  1883,  that: 

Frederick  Jost,  Chief  Deputy  Marshal  under  Osborn,  and  his  predecessor,  Tur, 
ner,  had  "  presented  accounts  for  services  rendered  which  he  knew  at  the  time 
"contained  false  and  fictitious  items.     By  his  indifference,  negligence  or  con. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  155 

"nivance  the  most  flagrant  and  glaring  frauds  were  being  constantly  committed 
"throughout  the  District  over  which  he  had  general  supervision." 

Examiner  Bowman  says  that  Jost  was  afterwards  promoted  and  appointed 
U.  S.  Deputy  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  for  the  State  of  Alabama. 

P.  419. —  W.  B.  Jackson  and  Green  B.  Franklin,  Deputy  U.  S.  Marshals  under 
Osborn,  are  reported  specially  by  examiner  Bowman  as  having  made  false  and 
fraudulent  charges  in  their  accounts  against  the  Treasury. 

P.  407-408-11.— Tlwmas  J.  Scott  was  another  Deputy  Marshal  under  Osborn 
who  is  charged  by  Special  Examiners  Bowman  and  Wiegand,  July  31, 1883,  with 
making  charges  in  his  accounts  that  "  are  absolutely  false,  fraudulent  and  fictitious." 
Mr.  Bowman  under  oath  says  Scott  was  not  dismissed  from  office,  on  the  con. 
trary  was  promoted  to  the  "Iwnorable  and  lucrative  officer"  of  "  Register  of  the  XT. 
S.  Land  Office  at  Montgomery,  Albania." 

P.  392-393-4. — Paul  Sir obacli,  U.  S.  Marshal  of  Alabama,  Southern  District,  suc- 
ceeded Osborn  in  1883.  Examiner  Bowman  reports  to  the  Attorney-General, 
April  4th,  1883,  that  Strobach  appointed  W.  Easeley  as  U.  S.  Guard  over  prison- 
ers, who  tendered  false,  fraudulent  and  fictitious  charges  for  services. 

Mr.  Bowman  says  in  his  report  and  also  in  his  sworn  testimony,  that  Easley,  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment,  was  generally  known  to  be  a  horse  thief  and  a  fugitive 
from  justice.  Bowman  says  S.  D.  Oliver,  another  Deputy  under  Strobach,  ren- 
dered false  and  fraudulent  accounts  against  the  Government ;  and  was  retained 
in  office  until  his  dismissal  was  peremptorily  ordered  by  V.  S.  States  Judge 
Pardee. 

ILLINOIS. 

P.  174. — U.  S.  Marshal  Jacob  Wheeler,  of  the  Southern  District  of  Illinois. 
Examiner  Haight,  of  Department  of  Justice,  reports  to  the  Attorney-General,  April 
11,  1883.  that  W  heeler  had  made  false  charges  against  the  Government,  and  was 
guilty  of  official  irregularities. 

Clerk  of  the  U.  S.  Courts,  Bowen,  at  Springfield,  is  reported  by  Examiner 
Haight  to  have  embezzled  public  funds  and  defaulted  for  $43,000.00. 

ARKANSAS. 

P.  166-7.  — James  Torrans,  XT.  S.  Marshal  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Arkansas,  is 
reported  by  Examiners  Haight  and  Smith,  June  9,  1883,  to  the  Attorney-General 
as  a  defaulter  to  the  Government  to  the  amount  at  least  of  $30,000. 

Torrans,  Deputy  Joseph  T.  Brown,  is  guilty  of  presenting  forged  and  false  ac- 
counts against  the  Treasury. 

NORTH    CAROLINA. 

P.  325. — Robert  M.  Douglas,  IT.  S.  Marshal  for  the  'Western  District  of  North 
Carolina. 

Special  Examiners  Bowman  and  Wiegand,  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  in- 
vestigated this  officer's  accounts,  &c.,  and  reported  to  the  Attorney-General, 
November  7,  1882,  "  That  James  Dick,  the  Chief  Clerk,  is  totally  incompetent  to 
perform  the  duties  of  the  office."    Dick  is  the  brother-in-law  of  Marshal  Douglas. 

Deputy  Marshal  W.  T.   Watson  is  guilty  of  gross  neglect  of  duty. 

Deputy  Marshals  A.  M.  Meadows  and  Ooorge  K.  Pritchard  rendered  false 
accounts. 

Deputy  Marshals  M.  E.  Jlaynie  and  O.  R.  Pritchard  rendered  false  vouchers  to 
the  Government,  and  were  retained  in  office  by  Marshal  Douglas  after  he  knew  of 
their  frauds. 


156  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM. 

Marshal  Douglas  says  under  oath  that  JJaynie  has  since  been  appointed  by  Secretary 
of  the  Treusury  to  a  responsible  position  in  the  Treasury  Department,  at  Washing- 
ton. 

Special  Examiner  Bowman,  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  says  under  oath  before 
the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  9th,  1884,  that  from  his 
personal  knowledge  of  Haynie's  official  record,  "  he  is  undoubtedly  a  thief" 

ARIZONA  TERRITORY. 

P.  184. — Joseph  C.  Tiffany,  U.  S.  Indian  Agent,  is  charged  with  embezzlement 
of  the  public  funds,  grand  larceny,  and  conspiracy  against  the  Treasury,  by  the 
officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice. 

R.  G.  Wheeler,  U.  S.  Indian  Agent,  at  Pinia,  Arizona  Territory,  is  charged  by 
the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice  with  gross  irregularities  in  the  admin- 
istration of  his  office. 

P.  271.— U.  S.  Marshal  Dake  of  Arizona  Territory. 

Examiner  Bowman,  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  investigated  this  office  in 
May,  1882,  and  reports  to  Attorney-General  Brewster  that  Dake  had  received 
large  amounts  of  public  money  which  he  had  failed  to  account  for.  He  did  not 
keep  any  books,  accounts,  or  records,  and  neglected  the  duties  of  his  office  for 
his  private  business. 

Wilson  W.  Hoover,  Associate  Judge  U.  S.  Courts  in  Arizona  Territory,  is 
charged  by  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice  with  borrowing  money  from 
liis  court  litigants. 

ALABAMA. 

P.  82. — Joseph  II.  Sloss,  U.  S.  Marshal  of  the  Northern  District  of  Alabama,  is 
charged  by  the  Examiners  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  in  their  report  to  the 
Attorney-General,  and  in  their  sworn  testimony  before  Congress,  with  permit- 
ting frauds  in  his  District  against  the  Government  during  the  year  1882,  and 
with  gross  neglect  of  duty. 

Deputy  U.  S.  Marshal  Green  in  this  district  is  charged  with  misconduct  in  office. 

P.  45. —  U.  S.  Commissioner,  Paul  Bamsees,  Uenry  S.  Skaats  and  John  H.  Wal- 
lace, were  removed  by  order  of  the  Judge  of  the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  of  Ala- 
bama, Dec.  5th,  1883,  for  gross  irregularities  in  their  accounts. 

On  the  same  day  the  same  Judge,  for  the  same  reason,  ordered  the  immediate 
dismissal  of  the  following  named  Deputy  U.  S.  Marshals,  and  prohibited  their 
future  employment:  William  Bates,  C.  B.  Easeley,  J.  K.  Meyers,  Edward  Mar- 
shall, S.  D.  Oliver,  Br.,  C.  D.  Oliver,  Jr.,  J.  II.  Purdue,  Hill  Perdue,  B.  S.  Perdue, 
C.  B.  Johnson,  J.  R.  Porterficld,  J.  F.  James  and  T.  R.  W.  Bock. 

TEXAS. 

P.  254-5. — A.  B.  Norton,  V.  S.  Marshal  for  Northern  District  of  Texas,  is 
charged  by  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  in  their  official  reports  to 
the  Department,  and  in  their  sworn  testimony  before  Congress,  with  preventing 
witnesses  from  testifying  in  cases  of  frauds  against  the  Government  and  with  ren- 
dering false  accounts,  and  he  employed  corrupt  "  dissipated  and  reckless  men  as 
deputies  who  were  a  reproach  to  the  public  service." 

P.  257-8. — F.  W.  Miner,  U.  S.  District  Attorney  for  the  Northern  District  of 
Texas,  is  also  charged  by  the  same  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  with 
general  incompetency,  and  permitting  unlawful  compromises  in  criminal  cases. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  157 

Edward  Guthridge,  TT.  S.  District  Attorney  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Ilxas,  is 
charged  by  the  same  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  in  their  reports  to  the 
Department  and  their  testimony  before  Congress,  with  accepting  bribes  in  the 
performance  of  the  duties  of  his  office. 

)  Hal  Gasling,  TJ.  8.  Marshal  for  Western  District  of  Texas,  is  charged  by  the  offi- 
cers of  the  Department  of  Justice  with  neglect  of  duty  and  absence  without 
leave. 

P.  257-8. — JST.  IT.  Sirrell,  Deputy  IT.  8.  Marshal,  under  Marshal  Norton. 

Examiners  Bowman  and  Tidball  reported  to  the  Department  of  Justice,  May 
9,  1882,  that  Sirrell  was  guilty  of  making  unlawful  arrests  of  citizens  and  extort- 
ing money  from  them  for  their  release. 

P.  253. — Examiner  Bowman  swears  that  Deputy  Marshal  Sirrell's  conduct  "got 
so  bad  in  the  Marshal's  office  that  they  could  not  keep  him  any  longer,  and  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  him  he  was  appointed  U.  S.  Route  Agent  for  the  Post  Office 
Department  between  Dallas  and  Waco,  Texas,  and  is  still  in  office  (Feb.  2,  1G84). 

TT.  8.  Commissioner  Schenck  is  charged  in  the  same  report,  by  the  same  officers* 
with  accepting  bribes  to  release  prisoners  charged  with  offences  against  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

P.  455. — Absalom  Ely  the,  TT.  8.  Marshal of 8out7t  Carolina,  is  charged  by  Examiners 
Ballin  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  with  rendering  false  and  fictitious  accounts 
against  the  Government,  and  numerous  irregularities. 

W.  8.  Walker,  Clerk  in  Blythe's  office  rendered  false  accounts. 

The  following  named  Deputy  Marshals  under  Blythe  are  charged  in  a  joint 
official  report  made  to  Attorney-General  Brewster,  by  Examiners  Ballin,  Nightin- 
gale and  AVoods  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  with  rendering  "  false,  fraudulent 
"and  fictitious  accounts  for  services,"  viz  :  A.  E.  Phillippi,  Julious  Fraaborg, 
C.  O.  Kimball,  John  A.  Stevenson,  Alfred  Harris,  J.  J.  Pearson,  Wm.  M.  Mittag, 
W.  M.  Bridges,  A.  G.  Smith,  C.  A.  Carson,  J.  E.  Gaze,  C.  TV.  Cummings,  James 
Turner,  M.  D.  Alexander,  W.  F.  Garey,  W.  V.  Holden,  Wm.  Kennedy,  R.  E. 
Evans,  L.  R.  Fisher,  W.  C.  Fisher,  R.  J.  Spratley,  M.  L.  Case,  R.  M.  Casey,  J. 
B,  Dill,  P.  J.  Barnister,  W.  D.  Goode.     Amount  of  false  accounts,  $6,824.43. 

LOUISIANA. 

TT.  8.  Commissioners  W.  G.  Lane,  Joseph  A.  Quinters  and  Anthony  8ambola  are 
all  charged  by  the  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice  with  malfeasance  in 
office. 

P.  34. — Francis  A.  Wolfley,  Clerk  to  the  TT.  8.  Courts  of  New  Orleans,  is  reported 
by  the  Examiner  of  the  Department  of  Justice  to  have  failed  to  account  for 
$13,500  during  the  year  18S2,—  public  funds. 

MISSOURI. 

P.  427.— C.  M.  Allen,  U.  S.  Marshal. 

The  Department  of  Justice  examiners  report  that  Allen  made  "  a  great  many 
"false,  fraudulent,  fictitious  and  erroneous  charges  in  his  accounts"  against  the 
Government,  and  neglect  of  duty. 


158  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

Deputy  Marshal  W.  H.  Eoughawout  made  fraudulent  charges  against  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

Zoeste,  Chief  Deputy  Marshal  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Missouri,  is  charged  with 
gross  negligence  of  duty  by  the  officers  of  the  Bureau  of  Justice. 

C.  C.  Crippin,  Deputy  Marshal  under  Allen,  "presented  false  and  fraudulent 
"  charges  "  against  the  Government. 

NEW  YORK. 

A.  S.  Lane,  Deputy  U.  S.  Marshal  of  tlie  Northern  District  of  New  York,  is  re 
ported  by  the  Examiners  of  the  Department  of  Justice  as  rendering  false  accouuts 
against  the  Government. 

J.  T.  Quimbey,  another  Deputy  in  this  District,  is  charged  with  conspiring  with 
Lane  to  defraud  the  Government. 

GEORGIA. 

P.  49. — 0.  P.  Fitzsimmons  was  IT.  S.  Marshal  for  Georgia  up  to  November,  187*, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  General  Longstreet. 

The  Department  of  Justice  Officers  report  Fitzsimmons  was  a  defaulter  to  the 
Government  for  $23,000,  and  charge  him  with  rendering  false  and  fictitious  ac- 
counts against  the  Government.  Examiner  Ballin,  who  reported  the  case  to  the 
Department  of  Justice,  says  under  oath  before  the  Congressional  Committee,  Jan- 
uary 16,  1884,  that  he  does  not  believe  that  the  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury 
has  caused  suit  to  be  entered  on  Fitzsimmons'  bond,  to  recover  the  amount  of  de- 
falcation. 

Examiner  Ballin  charges  Deputy  Marshal  Robinson  with  rendering  false  ac- 
counts while  serving  under  Fitzsimmons. 

Examiner  Ballin  says  these  Deputies  made  out  accounts  for  expenses  that  had 
never  been  incurred,  and  swore  to  them  as  being  true  and  correct.  He  says  there 
were  about  seventy  deputy  Marshals  and  the  majority  of  them  perpetrated  frauds 
on  the  Government  by  making  fictitious  and  false  accounts  against  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Warren  B.  Marshall,  Assistant  U.  S.  District  Attorney,  of  S.  C,  is  charged  by 
Examiner  Ballin  with  failure  to  report  frauds  on  the  Government, 

C.  W.  Cummins,  Deputy  Collector,  Storekeeper  and  Gauger  of  Internal  Reve- 
nue.    Examiner  Ballin  reports  his  accounts  full  of  fraudulent  charges. 

Examiner  Ballin  reports  to  the  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury,  May  8,  1882, 
on  the  character  of  some  of  Marshal  Fitzsimmons'  deputies,  as  follows: 

Deputy  Marshal  B.  Bolton  "had  in  his  employ  Wm.  Bolton,  his  son,  J.  T.  Self, 
'■  "W.  G.  Self,  and  they  in  turn  employed  their  brother-in-law,  II.  C.  Davis,  and 
"  they  all  managed  to  support  themselves  by  forced  bills  against  the  Govern 
"ment." 

Deputy  W.  67.  Newman  admits  he  employed  guards  that  were  not  necessary. 

Deputy  J.  B.  Caston,  guilty  of  irregularities. 

Deputy  J.  M.  Bobinson  made  false  and  fraudulent  charges  against  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Deputy  A.  J.  Laird  employed  guards  where  none  were  needed. 

Deputy  A.  B.  Wright  made  false  charges. 

Deputy  Jackson,  unworthy  of  belief,  made  false  statements. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  159 

Deputy  L.  G.  Perkle  employed  assistants  where  none  were  needed. 

Deputy  T.  J.  Hunt's  "  accounts  are  full  of  fraud." 

Deputy  A.  D.  KeilK 's'"  accounts  is  infamously false" 

Deputy  H.  B.  Keith's  are  in  the  same  shape  as  his  son's,  A.  D.  Keith. 

"H.  R.  Keith  is  a  ruffian,"  his  assistant  Deputies  are  Peter  Chapman,  -who  is 
under  indictment  for  murdering  a  United  States  Revenue  officer,  and  D.  P.  Pain- 
ter, who  has  three  indictments  pending  against  him  for  violations  of  United 
States  revenue  laws. 

H.  B.  Keith  is  himsef  an  ex-convict  of  the  Tennessee  Penitentiary,  where  he  was 
confined  for  horse  stealing  and  his  time  of  service  not  having  expired,  and  as  the 
record  shows  no  pardon,  he  is  believed  to  he  a  fugitive  from  justice.  His  treatment 
of  citizens  brought  into  contact  with  him  officially,  was  brutal  beyond  expression. 

P.  260. — U.  S.  Marshal  James  Longstreet. 

Hon.  Emory  Speer,  U„  S.  District  of  Georgia  and  an  Ex-Republican  M.  C, 
states  under  oath  before  the  Congressional  Committee  that  General  Longstreet 
(who  is  the  Ex-Confederate  General)  presented  accounts  of  his  Deputy  Robinson 
to  the  Treasury  Department,  which  were  fictitious  and  fraudulent.  Indicted 
prisoners  were  allowed  to  escape  from  the  custody  of  the  Marshal.  Mr.  Speer 
says  the  office  is  not  properly  and  efficiently  administered,  and  that  the  Chief 
Deputy,  John  G.  Longstreet,  who  is  a  son  of  the  General,  "  is  very  inefficient." 

P.  331. — Spedal  Examiner  Bowman  reports  to  the  Department  of  Justice  that 
Deputy  Marshals  Bobinson  and  Crawford  got  up  a  large  number  of  frivolous  and 
technical  cases  against  citizens  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making  fees  for  themselves, 
and  thus  harassed  the  people  of  the  State  by  arrests  on  the  most  frivolous  charges. 
There  was  no  bona  fide  intention  of  enforcing  the  law. 

P.  332. — Examiner  Bowman  reports  the  accounts  of  General  Longstreet  badly 
mixed.  There  were  in  his  Deputies'  accounts  about  twelve  thousand  dollars  of 
fraudulent  accounts. 

P.  346. — Deputy  Marshals  John  G.  Longstreet  and  A  B.  Wright  entered  into  a 
conspiracy  to  defraud  the  Government  by  means  of  a  fraudulent  voucher  for  clerk 
hire  amounting  to  several  thousand  dollars. 

J.  F.  O'Beirne,  Deputy  and  U.  8.  Commissioner,  is  charged  with  accepting  bribes 
to  release  prisoners. 

Deputy  John  G.  Longstreet  is  charged  with  presenting  false  expense  accounts, 
and  gross  intemperance. 

Deputy  B.  D.  Bolton  is  charged  with  permitting  prisoners  to  escape. 

Deputy  Marshal  J.  M.  Bobinson  is  charged  with  rendering  false  accounts  the 
same  as  he  did  under  the  former  Marshal. 

P.  49. — Examiner  Bowman  swears  before  the  Congressional  Committee,  that 
General  T  ^street  was  notified  by  him  that  Deputy  Marshal  Robinson  had  been 
guilty  :  I  .;  aids  on  the  Government  while  serving  under  Fitzsimmons,  and 
notwithstanding  he  recommend  his  removal,  Longstreet  retained  him,  knowing 
him,  to  be  a  rascal,  and  Robinsou  practiced  the  same  frauds  on  the  Government 
under  Longstreet  that  he  did  under  Fitzsimmons. 

P.  331. — The  Court  expenses  for  last  year  (1883),  says  Examiner  Bowman,  were 
$140,000.  With  proper  management  of  the  Marshal's  office,  $50,000  would 
be  abundant  to  cover  all  expenses.  The  appointment  of  General  Longstreet  thus 
appears  to  have  caused  an  additional  and  unnecessary  expense  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  ninety  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 


160  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 


ALABAMA. 

P.  136. — R.  A.  Wilson,  Receiver  of  Public  Moneys  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 

Special  Examiners  Bowman,  Weigand  and  Nightingale,  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  reported  to  their  Department,  August  14,  1883,  that  Wilson  had  been  a 
Deputy  U.  S.  Marshal  for  the  Middle  and  Southern  Districts  of  Alabama  ,  that 
the  Foreman  of  the  Grand  Jury  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  informed  them  in 
May,  1883,  that  the  jury  had  reliable  information  that  Wilson  had  tendered  false 
accounts  against  the  United  States.  The  Examiners  report  that  Wilson  swore  to 
his  accounts  as  "just,  true  and  correct,"  when  they  were  absolutely  false,  fraud- 
ulent and  fictitious. 

While  these  officers  of  the  Department  of  Justice  were  examining  Wilson's 
accounts,  he  committed  a  violent  personal  assault  on  Mr.  Wiegand.  All  three  of 
the  Examiners  recommended  Wilson  to  be  removed  from  his  office  of  Receiver 
in  the  interest  of  the  public  service. 

The  President  ignored  the  charges  against  Wilson  and  nominated  him  to  the 
Senate  for  a  permanent  appointment  to  the  office  of  Receiver  of  Public  Moneys 
of  the  State  of  Alabama. 

MONTANA    TERRITORY. 

P.  620-1.— #.  J.  Conger,  Associate  Justice  of  the  U.  S.  Court.  Mr.P.C.  Shan- 
non states  under  oath  before  the  House  Committee  on  Expenditures  in  the  Depart- 
ment of 'Justice,  March  1,  1884,  that  he  was  appointed  by  the  Attorney-General  to 
investigate  charges  against  Judge  Conger,  May,  1883.  Mr.  Shannon  reported  that 
Conger's  conduct  was  unseemly,  unbecoming  and  indecorous;  he  seta  vicious  ex- 
ample; aided  and  encouraged  gambling;  and  was  grossly  intemperate,  frequently 
drunk  on  the  bench.  Attorney-General  Brewster,  March  1,  1884,  recommended 
Conger  be  dismissed.     He  was  still  in  office  March,  1884. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

P.  19. — John  Hall,  IT.  S.  Marshal,  at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  is  reported  by  the  officers 
of  the  Department  of  Justice  as  being  a  defaulter  to  the  Government,  January 
15th,  1884,  for  $153,761. 

p.  440-441. —  V.  S.  District  Attorney  Stone,  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.  Samuel  B.  Benson, 
Assistant  Chief  of  the  Secret  Service  Division  of  the  Treasury  Department,  says 
under  oath,  before  the  House  Committee,  that  his  duty  was  to  detect  frauds  against 
the  Government,  and  that  on  a  personal  examination  of  the  facts  he  found  that 
District  Attorney  Stone  appointed  Daniel  Cameron  Assistant  District  Attorney  at 
a  salary  of  $1,250  per  annum,  and  that  Cameron  lives  400  miles  away  from  Pitts- 
burg and  does  no  duty  save  draw  his  salary. 

Cameron  is  the  brother-in-law  of  IT.  S.  Senator  Mitchell,  of  Pa.,  who  is  a  Re- 
publican, and  through  whose  influence,  Benson  swears,  Cameron  was  appointed. 
Cameron  is  the  law  partner  of  Senator  Mitchell. 

TEXAS. 

P.  15,  38,  259. — Stillwater  U.  Russell,  U.  S.  Marshal  for  the  Western  District  of 
Texas.  Special  Examiner  Bowman,  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  charges  him 
with  rendering  false  expense  accounts. 

Deputies  Walter  Johnson,  W.  N.  Norton  and  Robert  Clark  are  worthless  and. 
are  common  drunkards. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  161 

Special  Agent  John  Love,  of  Department  of  Justice,  reports  to  his  Department, 
July  17,  1882,  that  Deputy  Marshals  Henri/  Goldioater,  Charles  Adams,  Jake 
Woolfe  and  E.  P.  B.  Garter  have  committed  perjury  and  rendered  false  accounts 
against  the  Government. 

P.  237.  — Examiner  Bowman  states,  under  oath,  before  the  Congressional  Com- 
mittee, that  at  the  time  Russell  was  appointed  U.  S.  Marshal,  he  was  a  defaulter  to 
the  State  of  Texas  of  Collector  of  Taxes  for  Harrison  county  for  $13,610.17,  and 
when  he  was  appointed  U.  S.  Marshal  he  took  the  funds  belonging  to  the  U.  S. 
and  paid  up  his  defalcation  to  the  State  of  Texas  as  Collector  of  Taxes  for  Har- 
rison county. 

William  A.  Saylor,  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  for  Second  District  of  Texas, 
charged  with  being  a  defaulter  for  $661. 18,  and  sued  for  that  amount  March  24th, 
1883. 


EMBEZZLEMENT. 


John    Wallace,   employed  by  Postmaster  Daniels,    charged  with   embezzling 
letters  April  19,  1883. 

W.  H.  Howard,  employed  in  post  office  at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  charged  with  em- 
bezzling letters,  April  19th,  1883. 


FRAUDS  IN  PENSION  OFFICES. 

Hon.  A.  Herr  Smith,  the  Republican  Member  of  Congress  from  Lancaster,  Pa., 
in  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  says:  "I  find  W.  T.  Collins,  Pension 
Agent,  Washington,  D.  C,  was  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of  $53,074.01 — suit 
entered,  judgment  returned  nulla  bona.  Dudley  W.  Hazard,  Pension  Agent, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  defaulter  for  $6,006.35.  W.  T.  Forbes,  Pension  Agent,  Phila'- 
delphia,  defaulter  for  $42,834.74.  A.  R.  Calhoun,  Pension  Agent,  Philadelphia, 
defaulter  for  $11,187.76,  and  his  account  is  not  yet  adjusted,  and  the  arrears  are 
unpaid." 

March  6th,  1884,  Deputy  Surveyor  of  Customs,  Noah  Smith,  at  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  admits  he  has  embezzled  $1,600  of  Government  funds. 

A.  D.  Hackman,  Postmaster  at  Pipersville,  Bucks  Co.,  Penn.,  charged  by 
Government  officers  with  defrauding  the  Government  by  re-using  canceled  post- 
age stamps. 

April  4th,  1883,  Thomas  Reynolds,  Pension  Agent  at  Madison,  Wis.,  charged 
with  collecting  and  retaining  $5,000  of  pensions  of  widows. 

March  29th,  1883,  W.  J.  Pearson,  Postmaster  at  Batesville,  Ark.,  charged  with 
retaining  registered  mail  packages 

August  9th,  1882,  Appraiser  of  Customs  Howard,  of  New  York  City,  charged 
by  U.  S.  Special  Agent  Brackett,  of  Treasury  Department,  with  wilfully  violating 
the  Civil  Service  laws  by  appointing  and  promoting  personal  favorites  to  office. 

August  17,  1884,  A.  R.  Johnson,  Postmaster,  Grantsville,  W.  Ya.,  embezzled 
from  $1,500  to  $2,000  of  Government  funds,  and  though  a  married  man,  eloped 
with  a  neighbor's  daughter. 

11 


162  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

FRAUDS  AID  DEFALCATIONS  IN  THE  POST  OFFICE 

DEPARTMENT, 

J.  0.  P.  Burnside,  of  Illinois,  was  appointed  Disbursing  Officer  of  tJie  Post  Office 
Department  during  the  year  1876,  upon  the  recommendation,  it  is  stated,  of  Hon. 
John  A.  Logan,  the  TJ.  S.  Senator,  now  candidate  for  Vice  President  on  the  Re- 
publican ticket.  Suspicion  was  first  directed  toward  him  during  the  month  of 
May,  1884,  by  reason  of  his  connection  with  and  large  losses  in  a  fraudulent  oil 
speculating  firm.  An  examination  of  his  accounts  revealed  the  fact  that  he  had 
"been  systematically  defrauding  the  Government,  regularly  and  continuously,  from 
the  first  year  of  his  appointment,  1376,  down  to  the  month  of  May  last,  1884,  villi 
perfect  impunity,  so  far  as  the  officers  of  the  Government  were  concerned  who  had 
the  examination  of  his  accounts.  He  used  the  contingent  fund  and  old  material 
fund  of  the  Government  at  will  for  eight  years,  and  would  still  be  defaulting  ha;l 
not  public  attention  been  brought  to  his  oil  speculations  by  the  absconding  of 
3ii3  broker.  The  amount  of  his  defalcation  as  charged  by  the  Government  is 
nearly  eighty-Jive  thousand  dollars. 

Burnside's  bondsmen  claim  that  the  officers  of  the  U.  S.  having  charge  of  his 
accounts  failed  to  examine  and  settle  them  as  the  laws  require,  and  therefore 
they  cannot  be  held  liable.  If  this  defense  is  valid,  and  it  seems  to  be,  then  the 
Administration,  in  addition  to  the  fact  of  having  appointed  a  dishonest  man  to 
office  and  entrusted  him  with  the  custody  of  public  funds,  has  by  reason  of  the 
failure  of  the  Auditing  and  Comptrolling  officers  of  the  Government,  to  execute 
the  laws,  released  the  bonds  of  the  defaulter  and  caused  the  entire  loss  to  fall  on 
the  Treasury. 

POST  OFFICE  DEPARTMENT. 

Wm.  T.  Bailey,  Postmaster  at  Camden,  N.  J.,  is  charged,  July  28,  1884,  with 
being  a  defaulter  to  the  Government,  neglecting  to  deposit  Government  funds 
and  illegally  selling  stamps. 

Joseph  J.  C.  Dougherty,  Chief  of  the  Money  Order  Division  of  the  Post  office  at 
Baltimore,  Md.,  has  been  suspended  from  duty  (June  17,  1884)  and  charged  by 
Government  officials  with  being  a  defaulter  to  the  amount  of  several  thousand 
dollars. 

Herman  Buggeman,  Clerk  in  the  Stamp  Division  of  the  Post  Office  Department, 
caught,  June  1884,  selling  for  his  own  benefit  postage  stamps  he  had  stolen  from 
the  Government. 

October  29,  1883.  Cliarles  Gehring  and  John  Isaacs,  Letter  Carriers  in  Balti- 
more City  P.  O.,  charged  with  embezzling  mail  matter. 

F.  PL.  Oakley  was  detected  embezzling  postage  stamps  from  Post  Office  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  Sept.  7,  1883.     He  was  a  clerk-in  the  Post  Office. 

August  20th,  1883.  Charles  F.  Hensman,  Post  Master  at  Marksville,  Louisi- 
ana, is  charged  by  V.  S.  officers  with  embezzling  Government  funds  to  the 
amount  of  $1,500,00. 

Aug.  23,  1884.  Jesse  Ferguson,  Chief  Clerk  of  the  new  Post  Office  building 
in  Philadelphia,  charged  with  irregularity  in  his  accounts. 

August  17,  1883.  Thomas  B.  Kirby,  Clerk  in  the  Post  Office  Department, 
charged  with  sharing  in  the  profits  of  the  publishers  of  the  ''Postal  Guide." 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  163 

J.  J.  Alley,  an  Examiner  in  the  Pension,  Office,  charged,  by  Government  offi- 
cers, July  11,  1883,  with  entering  into  a  conspiracy  with  other  parties  to  defraud 
pensioners. 

Pay  Master  Wasson,  V.  S.  Army,  found  guilty  of  embezzling  large  amounts  of 
public  funds;  findings  approved  June,  1883. 

DEFALCATIONS  IN  STATE  DEPARTMENT. 

The  accounts  of  Robert  C.  Morgan,  late  disbursing  clerk  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment, have  recently  (August,  1884)  been  examined  and  settled,  and  there  is  found 
to  be  a  defalcation  of  $16,880.67. 

He  was  disbursing  clerk  of  the  Department  of  State  when  James  G.  Blaine 
was  Secretary. 

Treasury  officials  in  charge  of  his  accounts  are  unable  to  state  when  the  de- 
falcations commenced,  but  it  is  supposed  they  extended  some  years  back. 

This  defalcation  was  not  discovered  until  the  death  of  Morgan  necessitated  his 
accounts  to  be  settled. 

FRAUDS  IN  THE  NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

Recent  exposures  show  that  a  ring  of  Government  officials  in  the  Navy 
Department  has  been  for  years  regularly  engaged  in  committing  frauds  on  the 
Treasury  by  means  of  fraudulent  vouchers. 

This  ring  was  composed  of  Daniel  Carrigan,  Chief  Clerk  of  the  Bureau  of  Med- 
icine and  Surgery  ;  Edwin  C.  Kirkwood,  assistant  to  the  Chief  Clerk,  one  Jones 
a,  watchman  in  the  Department,  and  a  number  of  outside  parties.  The  mode  of 
operation  shows  the  frauds  to  be  very  similar  to  those  of  Howgate's,  of  the 
Signal  Service  of  the  War  Department.  Vouchers  were  made  up  and  signed  by 
the  outside  parties  and  contained  bills  of  articles  furnished  which  had  not  been 
furnished  and  never  were  intended  to  be  furnished  to  the  Department.  Carrigan 
endorsed  on  these  bills : 

"  I  certify  the  goods  mentioned  in  this  bill  have  been  delivered," 

(Signed)    CHARLES  CARRIGAN, 

Chief  Clerk. 

Surgeon  General  Wales  approved  the  certificate  of  Carrigan,  and  the  party 
who  made  up  and  signed  the  fictitious  voucher  was  then  paid,  without  investi- 
gation, by  the  Disbursing  Officer,  and  the  money  of  the  Government  thus  stolen 
was  then  divided  between  the  parties  to  the  frauds.  It  is  thought  by  U.  S. 
officers  investigating  these  frauds  that  not  less  than  $50,000  per  year,  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  past,  has  been  divided  by  the  conspirators  out  of  the  frauds.  The 
extraordinary  part  of  this  barefaced  robbery  is,  that  it  should  have  been  con- 
ducted so  long  without  any  detection  by  the  officers  of  the  Government  having 
the  supervision  of  the  Bureau  and  its  accounts.  Another  remarkable  feature  of 
this  wholesale  fraud  is,  that  Carrigan  having  lost  his  office,  offered  his  services, 
it  is  stated,  in  exposing  his  own  frauds  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  through  a  pri- 
vate detective,  and  the  Secretary  agreed  to  pay  this  detective  if  he  would  furnish 
the  evidence  which  would  expose  the  frauds. 

The  evidence  was  furnished  and  the  frauds  became  public.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  refused  then  to  pay  the  detective  his  bill  of  $5,000,  and  Carrigan,  who 
expected  to  get  a  part  of  this  reward  from  the  detective,  has  disappeared  and 
ain't  oe  found. 


164  ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM. 

The  investigations  of  the  Naval  Court  of  Inquiry,  of  which  Commodore  Jonett 
is  President,  reveal  the  fact  that  there  were  frauds  in  the  Bureau  of  Medicine 
and  Surgery  before  Medical  Director  Wales  become  Surgeon-General  There 
are  so  far  discovered,  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  false  vouchers,  involving  nearly 
$100,000.00.  The  evidence  shows  that  many  of  these  frauds  were  committed 
during  Secretary  Chandler's  administration. 

The  speech  of  Hon.  T.  A.  Hendricks,  candidate  on  the  Democratic  ticket  for 
Vice-President,  in  which  he  refers  to  these  frauds  and  the  correspondence  be- 
tween Mr.  Hendricks  and  ¥m.  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  on  the  sub- 
ject, is  appended  hereto. 


.  HENDRICKS  ACCEPTS. 


A    ROUSING    SPEECH   BY    THE    DEMOCRATIC    CANDIDATE    FOR 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 


PATRIOTIC  APPEAL  TO  THE  PEOPLE  TO  STAND  BY  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF 
REVENUE  AND  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM — ENTHUSIASTIC  APPROVAL  OF  HI& 
CANDIDACY. 

Indianapolis,  July  12. — A  largely  attended  Democratic  meeting,  to  ratify 
the  nominations  of  Cleveland  and  Hendricks,  was  held  here  to-night.  Messrs. 
Hendricks  and  McDonald  were  escorted  to  the  place  of  speaking  by  a  new  labor 
political  organization  known  as  the  "Autocrats."  The  meeting  was  called  to 
order  by  Austin  H.  Brown,  and  William  H.  English  was  made  chairman.  Mr. 
Hendricks  was  received  with  a  burst  of  genuine  enthusiasm  which  seemed  to 
inspire  him.     His  remarks  were  as  follows  : 

My  Fellow  Citizens:  You  are  almost  as  mad  as  they  were  in  the  convention  at 
Chicago.  [Great  cheering.]  I  thought  they  would  not  stop  up  there  at  all,  and 
I  thought  there  was  no  limit  to  the  crowd  of  people,  but  I  find  there  is  a  larger 
crowd  almost  here.  I  am  very  much  encouraged  and  delighted  to  meet  you  on 
this  occasion.  You  came  to  celebrate  and  to  express  your  approval  of  the 
nominations  that  were  made  at  Chicago.  I  am  glad  that  you  are  cordial  in  this 
expression.  This  is  a  great  year  with  us  Every  fourth  year  the  people  elect 
the  two  great  officers  of  the  Government. 

This  year  is  our  great  year,  and  every  man,  whatever  his  party  associations 
may  be,  is  called  upon  to  reconsider  all  questions  upon  which  he  is  disposed  to 
act,  and  having  reconsidered  to  cast  his  vote  in  favor  of  what  he  believes  to  be 
right.  The  Democracy  of  Indiana  appointed  me  one  of  the  delegates  to  the 
Convention  at  Chicago.  I  spent  nearly  a  week  in  attendance  in  that  city.  I  re- 
turn to  say  a  few  things  to  you,  and  only  a  few  things,  in  regard  to  that  conven- 
tion. 

It  was  the  largest  convention  ever  held  in  America.  Never  has  such  an  assem- 
blage of  people  been  seen  before.  It  was  a  convention  marked  in  its  character 
for  sobriety,  deliberation  and  purposes.  It  selected  two  men  to  carry  the  ban- 
ner, and  leaving  that  convention  and  going  out  before  the  people,  the  question 
is,  "  Will  you  help  carry  the  banner  ?  "  [Great  cheers  and  cries  of  "  We  will  do 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM.  165 

it."]  I  do  not  expect,  I  have  no  right  to  expect,  that  I  will  escape  the  criticism, 
and,  it  may  be,  the  slander  of  the  opposite  party.  I  have  not  in  my  life  suffered 
very  much  from  that,  but  I  come  before  you,  Democrats,  Conservatives,  Inde- 
pendents and  all  men  who  wish  to  restore  the  Government  to  the  position  it 
occupied  before  these  corrupt  times,  and  to  all  such  men  I  make  my  appeal  for 
your  support  for  the  high  office  to  which  I  have  been  nominated  by  the  Demo- 
cracy at  Chicago.  [Great  cheers.  ] 

Grover  Cleveland,  Governor  of  New  York,  is  the  nominee  for  President.  He 
was  promoted  to  that  high  office  by  the  largest  majority  ever  deciding  an  election 
in  that  State.  He  is  a  man  of  established  honesty  of  character,  and  if  you  will 
elect  him  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  you  will  not  hear  of  Star  routes 
in  the  postal  service  of  the  country  under  his  administration.  [Cheers.]  I  will  tell 
you  what  we  need — Democrats  and  Republicans  will  agree  upon  that — we  need  to 
have  the  books  in  the  Government  service  opened  for  examination.  [Cheers  and 
cries  of  "  That  is  it."] 

Do  you  think  that  men  in  this  age  never  yield  to  temptation  ?  [Laughter.]  It 
is  only  two  weeks  ago  that  one  of  the  Secretaries  at  Washington  was  called 
before  the  Senate  Committee  to  testify  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  his  depart- 
ment ;  in  that  department  was  the  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery.  In  that 
department  an  examination  was  being  had  by  the  committee  from  the  Senate, 
and  it  was  ascertained  by  the  oath  of  the  Secretary  that  sits  at  the  head  of  the 
department  that  the  defalcation  found  during  the  last  year,  as  far  as  it  had  been 
estimated,  was  $63,000,  and  when  asked  about  it  he  said  that  he  had  received  a 
letter  a  year  ago  informing  him  of  some  of  these  outrages,  and  that  a  short  time 
since  somebody  had  come  to  him  and  told  him  that  there  were  frauds  going  on 
in  the  service,  but  that  members  of  Congress  had  recommended  the  continuance 
of  the  head  of  the  bureau  with  such  earnestness  that  he  thought  it  must  be  all 
right.  And  now  it  turns  out  that  the  oublic  is  $63,000  out  and  how  much  more 
no  man,  I  expect,  can  now  tell. 

But  what  is  the  remedy  ?  To  have  a  President  that  will  appoint  a  head  of  a 
bureau  that  will  investigate  the  condition  of  the  books  and  bring  all  the  guilty 
parties  to  trial.     [Cheers  and  cries  of  "That  is  it."] 

My  fellow  citizens,  I  believe  that  for  such  a  duty  as  this,  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  the  United  States  Government  for  the  people  of  this  country,  I  can 
commend  to  your  confidence  Gov.  Cleveland,  of  New  York.  [Great  cheer- 
ing.] Not  long  since  there  were  troubles  in  the  local  government  of  the  city  of 
Buffalo,  and  the  conservative^people  of  that  city  nominated  Grover  Cleveland 
as  candidate  for  mayor,  not  upon  a  party  ticket,  but  a  citizens'  ticket,  with  the 
duty  assigned  to  him  of  correcting  the  evils  that  prevailed  in  the  government  of 
the  city  of  Buffalo. 

He  was  elected  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  and  made  corrections 
in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  that  city,  so  clearly  and  so  well  defined  that 
the  people  of  New  York  took  him  up  and  made  him  Governor  of  the  State,  and 
that  is  the  way  he  comes  before  you  now.     [Cries  of  " Hurrah  for  Cleveland."] 

He  who  corrects  all  evils  in  a  badly  administered  city  and  who  goes  from  that 
service  into  the  affairs  of  the  State  Government  and  makes  corrections  there, 
will  then  step,  in  the  natural  order  of  proceeding,  into  the  affairs  of  another 
Government  and  bring  about  reforms  there.     [Great  cheering.] 

Do  you  not,  all  of  you,  Democrats  and  Republicans,  believe  that  the  affairs  of 
the  Government  have  been  long  enough  in  the  hands  of  one  set  of  men?  [cries  of 
""We  do."]  and  do  you  not  all  believe  that  we  have  reached  a  period  when  there 
ought  to  be  a  change  ?   [Cries  of  "  We  do  "  and  "  We  will  have  it."]     I  do  not 


166  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM. 

ask  that  ail  shall  be  turned  out.  That  is  not  the  idea.  It  is  not  the  idea  if  a, 
man  has  done  his  duty  well  and  faithfully;  if  he  has  not  used  the  powers  of  his 
office  to  disturb  the  rights  of  the  people,  if  he  has  not  furnished  money  to  cor- 
rupt elections,  if  he  has  simply  confined  himself  to  the  duties  of  his  office.  I  am 
not  clamoring  for  his  official  blood.  But,  my  fellow  citizens,  of  these  120,000 
men  that  now  fill  official  positions  in  the  country  we  have  no  right  to  suppose 
from  all  that  has  taken  place  that  they  are  all  honest  [cheers  and  laughter],  and. 
the  only  way  that  we  can  know  is  to  make  a  change.  A  month  ago  everybody 
supposed  that  all  the  employes  in  the  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery  were  hon- 
est, and  now,  at  the  very  first  examination,  it  turns  out  that  they  are  not.  But 
what  is  the  remedy  ?  Put  them  out  and  put  honest  men  in.  [Cheers  and  cries, 
of  "  That  is  it."]  We  can't  do  that  if  we  leave  the  same  President  and  head  of 
departments  and  heads  of  bureaus  in.  I  have  every  faith  that  this  ticket  will  be 
elected.  [Cries  of  "So  have  I."]  I  think  I  know  something  about  Indiana. 
[Great  cheers  and  laughter.]  We  will  probably  stand  here  together,  won't  we  ? 
[Cheers  and  cries  of  "  You  bet. "]  And  this  banner  of  right,  of  justice,  of  fair 
government,  that  has  been  put  in  the  hands  of  Cleveland  and  Hendricks,  shall  be 
carried  and  placed  in  glorious  triumph  on  top  of  the  National  Capitol  in  Novem- 
ber next.  [Great  cheering  and  cries  of  "  We  will  put  it  there."]  Shall  this  be  the 
people's  banner?    [Cries  of  "  It  is."] 

Now,  1  have  spoken  longer  than  I  intended.  [Cries  of  "Go on  "  and  "  We  are 
not  tired  yet."]  I  know  when  any  of  my  Republican  friends  who  are  intending 
to  stand  by  their  party  still  longer  shall  see  this  numerous  crowd  to-night  they 
will  think  the  doom  of  fate  has  come  at  last.     [Cheers  and  laughter.] 

What  does  it  mean?  It  means  that  the  people  intend  to  have  reform  [cheers], 
and  that  is  the  watchword  that  is  written  upon  every  Democratic  banner.  It  was 
written  upon  the  Democratic  banner  eight  years  ago,  and  Tilden  and  Hendricks 
carried  that  banner.  [Cheers.]  Reform  was  defeated  by  defeating  the  right  of 
the  people  to  elect  their  own  rulers,  [cheers],  and  what  is  the  consequence  ? 
There  has  been  no  reduction  of  public  expenditures,  although  the  war  was  all  th& 
while  passing  further  and  further  away  from  us.  Still  this  Republican  party 
makes  no  reduction  in  the  public  expenditures.  Shall  we  have  it  ?  Shall  we 
have  cheap  government  ?  Shall  we  have  lower  taxes  ?  They  tell  us  that  the 
Government  can  be  well  carried  on  for  $100,000,000  less  a  year  than  is  now  col- 
lected from  the  public.  If  Cleveland  shall  come  into  the  Presidential  office  L 
believe  he  will  bring  the  expenditures  down  to  the  last  dollar  that  will  support 
the  Government  economically  administered  [cheers],  and  then  when  he  has  done 
that  he  will  have  accomplished  what  Gen.  Jackson  said  was  the  duty  of  every 
government.  A  government  has  not  the  right  to  collect  a  dollar  from  the  people 
except  what  is  necessary  to  meet  the  public  service.  [Cheers  and  cries  of  "  That 
is  right."]  Whatever  a  government  needs  it  has  a  right  to  come  to  me,  to  you, 
or  all  of  us,  and  make  us  pay  for  ;  but  when  it  gets  all  that  it  needs  for  economi- 
cal administration  it  has  not  the  right  to  take  another  sixpence  out  of  our  pock- 
ets, and  that  is  all  we  ask.  When  this  ticket  shall  wave  in  triumph  that  idea  will 
be  established  in  this  country.     [Cheers.] 


ADMINISTRATIVE   REFORM  167 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT  FRAUDS. 


MR.  CHANDLER  INFORMS  MR.    HENDRICKS    THAT  DR.    WALES  IS    THE   SCAPEGOAT. 

Secretary  Chandler  has  written  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Hen- 
dricks with  regard  to  the  frauds  in  the  Navy  Department  referred  to  by  the 
latter  in  his  speech  at  Indianapolis  Saturday  night : 

Washington,  July  13, 1884. 
Hon.   Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  Indianapolis,  Ind.: 

Sir — A  candidate  for  Vice-President  should  speak  with  decent  fairness. 

In  your  speech  at  Indianapolis  last  Saturday  night  you  made  statements  from 
which  you  meant  that  the  public  should  believe  that  it  appeared  by  my  testi- 
mony that  the  frauds  in  the  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery  of  this  Department 
amounted  during  the  past  year  to  $63,000;  that  I  was  informed  of  some  of  these 
outrages  a  year  ago;  that  af:er  I  was  informed  of  the  frauds  I  disbelieved 
them,  because  members  of  Congress  had  recommended  the  continuance  of  the 
chief  of  the  bureau,  and  that  I  took  no  adequate  action  concerning  them;  where- 
upon you  demanded  the  election  of  a  President  who  would  appoint  a  chief  of  the 
bureau  who  would  investigate  the  condition  of  the  books  and  bring  all  the  guilty 
parties  to  trial. 

To  the  contrary  of  all  this,  I  testified  that  the  suspected  vouchers  commenced 
as  far  back  as  June  21,  1880,  although  a  small  voucher  was  paid  as  late  as  Janu- 
ary 25,  1884;  that  while  an  anonymous  letter  of  about  a  year  ago  charged  drunk- 
enness upon  the  chief  clerk,  Daniel  Carrigan,  which  the  chief  of  the  bureau,  Dr. 
Phillip  S.  Wales,  reported  to  me  was  not  true,  I  had  no  information  leading  to 
the  frauds  until  December  or  January  last ;  that  I  determined  simultaneously 
with  beginning  investigation  to  have  a  new  chief  of  bureau  in  place  of  Dr.  Wales, 
whose  term  was  to  expire  January  26,  and  also  a  new  chief  clerk  ;  that  great  op- 
position to  the  change  was  made  by  members  of  Congress.  I  persisted  and  Dr. 
Wales  went  out  on  that  date  and  Carrigan  was  put  out  February  4  ;  and  that  the 
investigation  into  frauds  and  arrests  of  guilty  parties  have  since  proceeded  with 
due  diligence. 

It  is  true  that  I  stated  that  the  recommendations  for  reappointment  of  Dr. 
Wales,  whom  I  found  in  office,  when  I  went  in,  April  17,  1882,  were  of  such  a 
character  as  to  fully  justify  me  in  believing  that  the  affairs  of  his  bureau  had 
been  well  administered. 

Senator  McPherson  wrote  the  following  letter : 

United  States  Senate, 
Washington,  D.  C,  December  18,  1883. 
To  the  President — Sir:  As  the  term  of  office  of  Surgeon-General  Wales,  of  the 
Navy  Department,  is  soon  to  expire,  and  considering  it  not  a  political  office,  I 
presume,  as  I  am  a  perfect  prodigal  with  the  article  of  advice,  to  ask,  for  the 
good  of  everybody  and  everything  relating  to  that  se'rvice,that  you  reappoint  him. 
I  do  this  because  he  is  an  excellent  officer,  having  ability  and  energy,  qualities 
not  general  in  the  naval  service,  and  which,  I  think,  should  be  nourished  when 
discovered.  I  feel  sure  if  any  officer  has  deserved  such  recognition  from  the  ap- 
pointing power  by  reason  of  faithful  and  efficient  service  in  the  past,  that  officer 
is  Surgeon-General  Wales. 

I  am  yours  with  very  great  respect, 

J,  R.  McPherson. 


168  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM. 

A  petition  for  reappointment,  written  by  Carrigan,  was  sent  to  the  President, 
headed  by  J.  G.  Carlisle,  followed  by  Phil  B.  Thompson,  Jr.,  Leopold  Morse,  R. 
H.  M.  Davidson,  D.  Wyatt  Aiken,  William  McAdoo,  George  D.  Wise,  John  C. 
Nichols,  P.  A.  Collins,  H.  B.  Lovering,  Robert  B.  Vance,  D.W.  Connolly,  Chas. 
B.  Lore,  George  A.  Post,  Albert  L.  Willis,  Carleton  Hunt,  G.  W.  Hewitt,  Wm. 
H.  F.  Fiedler  and  other  representatives  in  Congress,  saying  of  Dr. Wales, "he has 
administered  the  affairs  of  that  bureau  during  the  last  four  years  with  signal 
ability  and  success. "  United  States  Senators  McPherson,  Butler,  Brown,  Col- 
quitt, Beck,  Williams,  C.  W.  Jones,  Ransom  and  thirty-two  other  Senators,  also 
using  Carrigan  as  their  writer,  petitioned  for  Dr.  Wales'  reappointment,  stating 
that  his  administrative  capacity  has  been  fully  demonstrated  by  the  successful 
management  of  the  bureau  of  which  he  now  has  charge. 

Senator  McPherson  and  Speaker  Carlisle  and  others  of  the  most  prominent  of 
these  gentlemen  who  demanded  Dr.  Wales'  reappointment  were  with  you  in  the 
convention  at  Chicago  and  could  have  informed  you  that  he  had  borne  a  good 
reputation;  that  the  law  required  that  the  chief  of  the  bureau  should  be  a  naval 
surgeon  and  placed  the  medical  expenditures  in  his  hands;  that  his  was  in  no 
sense  a  political  office,  but  that  if  he  had  any  politics  he  was  a  Democrat;  and 
that  any  attempt  to  make  political  capital  out  of  frauds  for  which  this  naval  sur- 
geon, who  is  their  intimate  friend,  is  solely  responsible,  would  be  disingenuous 
and  unfair.  That  they  did  not  succeed  in  keeping  Dr.  Wales  and  his  chief  clerk, 
Carrigan,  in  office,  is  very  fortunate. 

Very  respectfully, 

W.  E.  Chandler. 


MR.  HENDRICKS  TO  MR.  CHANDLER. 


A   SHARP    REJOINDER   TO   THE   LETTER  OF   THE   SECRETARY  OF   THE  NAVY. 

Indianapolis,  July  14. — Ex-Gov.  Hendricks  has  written  the  following  in  re- 
sponse to  the  letter  of  Secretary  Chandler  published  in  the  Associated  Press  pa- 
pers this  morning: 

Indianapolis,  Ind.,  July  14, 1884. 
Hon.  W.  K  Chandler: 

Sir — I  find  in  the  newapapers  this  morning  a  letter  to  me  from  yourself,  writ- 
ten yesteaday  and  circulated  through  the  Associated  Press.  You  complain  that 
I  did  you  injustice  in  an  address  to  the  people  of  this  city  made  the  evening  be- 
fore In  that  address  I  urged  that  "We  need  to  have  the  books  in  the  Govern- 
ment offices  opened  for  examination,"  and  as  an  illustration  I  cited  the  case  of  a 
fraudulent  voucher  in  one  of  the  bureaus  of  your  department  and  stated  that 
upon  your  testimony  before  a  sub-committee  of  the  Senate  it  appeared  that 
the  frauds  amounted  to  $63,000,  and  is  not  every  word  of  that  true  ?  You  were 
brought  before  the  committee  and  testified,  as  I  stated.  You  admitted,  under 
oath,  that  the  sum  of  money  lost  amounted  to  $63,000;  but  your  defense  was 
that  the  embezzlement  did  not  wholly  occur  under  your  administration,  but  that 
a  part  of  it  was  under  that  of  your  predecessor.  It  seems  to  have  covered  the 
period  from  June  21,  1880,  down  to  January  25,  1885.  Does  that  help  your 
case  ?  You  were  at  the  head  of  the  department  a  year  and  nine  months  of  that 
period  and  your  predecessor  about  one  year  and  ten  months.  He  was  in  office 
at  the  payment  of  the  first  false  voucher,  on  June  21,  1880,  and  up  to  April  17, 
1882,  when  you  came  in  and  you  continued  thence  until  the  lasc  false  voucher  was 
paid,  January  25,  1884.     The  period  wis  almost  equally  divided  between  yourself 


ADMINISTRATIVE    REFCRM.  169 

and  your  predecessor.     How  much  of  the  $63,000  was  paid  out  under  yourself 
and  how  much  under  your  predecessor  your  letter  does  not  show. 

But,  sir,  upon  the  question  that  I  was  discussing,  does  it  make  any  difference 
who  was  Secretary  when  the  false  vouchers  were  paid  ? 

Judged  that  in  cases  like  this  when  frauds  are  concocted  in  the  vaults  or  in  the 
hooks  of  the  Department,  the  only  remedy  of  the  people  is  a  change  of  the  con- 
trol so  that  tne  books  and  vouchers  shall  come  under  the  examination  of  new 
and  disinterested  men.  Do  you  think  I  am  answered  when  3tou  say  I  was  mis- 
taken in  supposing  that  in  this  case  the  frauds  were  all  under  your  administra- 
tion, when,  in  fact,  a  part  of  them  extended  back  into  that  of  your  predecessor? 

Why,  sir,  that  makes  your  case  worse. 

For  the  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery  the  defalcation  is  large,  but  the  more 
serious  fact  is  that  it  could  and  did  extend  through  two  administrations  of  the 
department,  a  period  of  nearly  four  years  without  detection. 

You  testified  that  some  inquiry  was  made,  and  the  conclusion  was  that,  while 
there  were  some  suspicious  circumstances,  they  did  not  warrant  a  conclusion  of 
guilt.  After  a  notice,  verbal  and  in  writing,  you  left  ne  men  in  office.  You 
did  not  bring  the  frauds  to  light  nor  the  guilty  parties  to  punishment.  It  was 
Government  Detective  Wood  who  discovered  the  frauds,  and  the  Associated 
Press  report  says  that  Wood  declared  he  would  have  no  further  dealings  with 
your  department,  but  would  press  an  investigation  before  Congress. 

But  it  becomes  more  serious  as  far  as  you  are  individually  concerned  when  the 
fact  is  considered  that  you  had  notice  and  took  no  sufficient  action.  The  infor- 
mation upon  which  I  spoke  was  from  Washington  the  26th"of  last  month  by  the 
Associated  Press,  the  same  that  brings  me  your  letter.  The  Associated  Press 
obtained  its  information  either  in  your  department  or  from  the  investigating  com- 
mittee. If  you  were  not  correctly  reported  that  was  the  time  for  complaint  and 
correction.  You  testified  that  the  total  of  the  suspicious  vouchers  discovered  so 
far  was  about  $63,000,  and  that  the  money  fraudulently  obtained  was  in  some 
instances  divided  between  a  watchman  in  the  department,  Carrigan,  chief  clerk, 
and  Kirkwood  in  charge  of  the  accounts. 

Now,  what  notice  had  you  ?  According  to  the  Associated  Press  report  of 
your  testimony  you  received  a  letter  last  year  charging  Carrigan,  one  of  the  par- 
ties, with  drunkenness,  and  after  that  a  man  came  to  you  and  told  you  that  Kirk- 
wood and  Carrigan  were  engaged  in  frauds.  Did  not  that  put  you  upon  notice 
and  investigation  ? 

What  is  your  next  excuse  ?  Worse,  if  possible,  than  all  before.  You  say  a 
large  number  of  Congressmen,  including  some  gentlemen  of  great  influence  and 
position,  recommended  that  the  head  of  the  Bureau,  Dr.  Wales,  should  be  re- 
appointed. Members  of  Congress  knew  nothing  of  the  frauds,  they  had  no  op- 
portunity to  know.  It  was  within  your  reach  and  power.  They  were  probably 
his  personal  friends;  you  were  his  official  superior.  But,  in  fact,  did  you  reap- 
point him  ?  I  understand  not.  Perhaps  the  detective  discovered  the  frauds  too 
soon.  But  Dr.  Wales  was  not  one  of  the  three  guilty  parties.  He  neither  forged 
the  vouchers  nor  embezzled  the  money.  His  responsibility  in  the  case  is  just  the 
same  as  your  own.     He  was  the  official  superior  of  the  three  rogues  as  you  were 

of  himself,  as  well  as  of  them.     Neither  he  nor  yourself  exposed  the  frauds  or 
punished  the  parties. 

I  have  not  thought  of  or  considered  this  as  a  case  of  politics.  Addressing  my 
neighbors  I  said  that  this  and  like  cases  admonish  them  to  demand  civil  service 
reform  in  the  removal  of  all  from  office  who  will  not  seek  to  promote  it  within 
the  sphere  of  their  official  duty  and' authority.        Respectfully, 

T.  A.  HENDEICKS. 


170  CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM. 


Civil  Service  Reform. 

Republican  Tendencies. 

The  evil  tendencies  of  the  Republican  party  were  never  more  forcibly  illus- 
trated than  by  one  of  its  own  distinguished  members,  Senator  Hoar,  of  Massachu- 
setts.    In  a  speech  in  the  Belknap  trial  he  said  : 

Senator  Hoar's  Arraignment. 

"  My  own  public  life  has  been  a  very  brief  and  insignificant  one,  extending  little 
beyond  the  duration  of  a  single  term  of  senatorial  office  ;  but  in  that  brief  period,  I  have 
seen  five  judges  of  a  high  court  of  the  United  States  driven  from  office  by  threats  of  im- 
peachment for  corruption  or  maladministration.  I  have  heard  the  taunt,  from  friendliest 
lips,  that  when  the  United  States  presented  herself  in  the  East  to  take  part  with  the  civil- 
ized world  in  generous  competition  in  the  arts  of  life,  the  only  product  of  her  institutions 
in  which  she  surpassed  all  others  beyond  question  was«her  corruption.  I  have  seen  in  the 
State  of  the  Union  foremost  in  power  and  wealth  four  judges  of  her  courts  impeached 
for  corruption,  and  the  political  administration  of  her  chief  city  become  a  disgrace  and  a 
by-word  throughout  the  world.  I  have  seen  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Mili- 
tary Affairs  in  the  House,  now  a  distinguished  member  of  this  court,  rise  in  his  place  and 
demand  the  expulsion  of  four  of  his  associates  for  making  sale  of  their  official  privilege 
of  selecting  the  youths  to  be  educated  at  our  great  military  school.  When  the  greatest 
railroad  of  the  world,  binding  together  the  continent  and  uniting  the  two  great  seas 
which  wash  our  shores,  was  finished,  I  have  seen  our  national  triumph  and  exultation 
turned  to  bitterness  and  shame  by  the  unanimous  reports  of  three  committees  of  Con- 
gress— two  of  the  House  and  one  here — that  every  step  of  that  mighty  enterprise  had 
been  taken  in  fraud.  I  have  heard  in  the  highest  places  the  shameless  doctrine  avowed 
by  men  grown  old  in  public  office  that  the  true  way  by  which  power  should  be  gained  in 
the  Republic  is  to  bribe  the  people  with  the  offices  created  for  their  service,  and  the  true 
end  for  which  it  should  be  used,  when  gained,  is  the  promotion  of  selfish  ambition  and 
the  gratification  of  personal  revenge.  I  have  heard  that  suspicion  haunts  the  footsteps 
of  trusted  companions  of  the  President." 

Robber  Barons. 

In  an  able  article  on  political  assessments,  in  the  North  American  Review  for  Septem- 
ber, 1882,  the  writer  points  out  its  evils  in  the  following  way  : 

"The  enforcement  of  this  nefarious  theory  by  the  '  Robber  Barons  '  of  politics  was 
never  so  universal,  so  shameless,  so  barbarous,  or  so  indiscreet  as  at  this  moment.  The 
Federal  pay-rolls  call  for  more  than  fifty  million  dollars  a  year.  On  that  sum  the 
avowal  is  a  levy  of  only  two  per  cent.,  but  the  actual  demand  upon  employees  and  small 
officials  is  tar  greater.  If  the  committee  expect  to  extort  only  a  fourth  of  the  one 
million  dollars  and  more  they  demand,  it  but  shows  the  effrontery  of  their  pretense  of  a 
willingness  to  pay,  and  that  they  have  no  compunctions  in  excusing  the  landlord  class 
and  wringing  the  whole  corruption  fund  from  the  most  timid  and  humble  of  the  tenant 
class.  Very  likely  they  expect  little  more  from  members  of  Congress  and  great  officials 
than  the  pittance  they  got  in  1878.  It  is  not  sharks  and  whales  they  have  the  courage  to 
fish  for,  but  herrings  and  dace.      Boys  are  bullied  for  a  dollar  ! 

"Could  the  curtain  of  secresy  be  lifted,  we  should  see  a  vast  drag-net  of  extortion 
thrown  out  by  the  committee  from  Washington  over  the  whole  land  from  Maine  to  Cali- 
fornia, with  every  humble  official  and  laborer — from  those  under  the  sea  at  Hell  Gate  to 
the  weather  observers  on  Pike's  Peak — entangled  in  its  meshes  ;  and,  busy  among  them, 


CIVIL   SERVICE  REFORM.  171 

for  their  prey,  a  series  of  tax  extortioners  ranging  down  from  Hubbell  the  great  Quaestor 
to  little  Hubbells  by  the  hundred,  each  paid  a  commission*  on  his  collections  in  true 
Turkish  fashion  (to  which  the  large  amounts  extorted  beyond  regular  plunder  rate  are 
added.)  These  minions,  book  in  hand,  are  haunting  the  official  corridors  and  tracking 
the  public  laborers.  They  mouse  around  the  bureaus  for  names  and  salaries  which  all 
high-toned  officials  contemptuously  withhold.  Neither  sex,  age,  nor  condition  is  spared 
by  these  spoils  system  harpies.  They  waylay  the  clerks  going  to  their  meals.  They 
hunt  the  Springfield  arsenal  and  the  Mississippi  breakwater  laborers  to  their  humble 
homes.  They  obtrude  their  impertinent  faces  upon  the  teachers  of  Indians  and  negroes 
at  Hampden  School  and  Carlisle  Barracks.  They  dog  navy-yard  workmen  to  their  nar- 
row lodgings.  The  weary  scrub-women  are  persecuted  to  their  garrets  ;  the  poor  office 
boys  are  bullied  at  their  evening  schools  ;  the  money  needed  for  rent  is  taken  from  the 
aged  father  and  only  son  ;  men  enfeebled  on  the  battle-fields  are  harried  in  the  very 
shadow  of  the  Capitol  ;  life -boat  crews,  listening  on  stormy  shores  for  the  cry  of  the 
shipwrecked,  and  even  chaplains  and  nurses  at  the  bedside  of  the  dying  are  not  exempted 
from  this  merciless,  mercenary,  indecent  conscription,  which  reproduces  the  infamy  of 
oriental  tax-farming. 

"We  know  of  the  head  of  a  family  who  hesitates  between  defying  Hubbell  and  taking 
a  meaner  tenement  ;  of  a  boy  at  evening  school  blackmailed  of  three  dollars  while  wear- 
ing a  suit  given  in  charity,  and  of  a  son  pillaged  of  seventeen  dollars  when  furniture  of 
the  mother  he  supports  was  in  pawn  ;  and  many  have  consulted  us  as  to  the  safety  of 
keeping  their  earnings  which  they  need.  In  every  case  there  is  fear  of  removal  or  other 
retaliation.  Pages  could  be  filled  with  such  cases  from  the  reports  of  citizens.  A  news- 
paper before  us  gives  that  of  a  laborer,  with  a  family,  earning  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  year,  pursued  by  a  harpy  for  fifteen  dollars  ;  and  also  that  of  a  boy  of  thirteen, 
earning  one  dollar  a  day,  with  another  harpy  after  him  for  three  dollars  and  sixty  cents. 
To  women  and  girls  no  mercy  is  shown." 

The  tendency  of  the  Republican  party  toward  corruption  and  decay  was  never 
better  exemplified  than  during  the  campaign  of  1882.  Notwithstanding  the  reck- 
less spoils  system  culminated  a  year  previous  in  the  assassination  of  their  President, 
the  Republicans  continued  their  demoralizing  practices  and  ridiculed  the  idea  of 
reform.  One  of  their  insults  to  society  and  the  cause  of  good  government  was  the 
assessment  of  federal  office-holders. 

Hubbell's  Letters  of  Assessment. 

The  following  was  the  first  letter  sent  out  by  the  Republican  Congressional  Com- 
mittee in  1882  : 

[Jay  A.  Hubbell,  Chairman;  D.B.  Henderson,  Secretary  ;  Executive  Committee, Hon- 
W.  B.  Allison,  Hon.  Eugene  Hale,  Hon.  Nelson  W.  Aldrich,  Hon.  Frank  Hiscock,  Hon. 
George  M.  Robeson,  Hon.  Wm.  McKinley,  Jr.,  Hon.  George  R.  Davis,  Hon.  Horatio 
G.  Fisher,  Hon.  Horace  F.  Page,  Hon.  W.  H.  Calkins,  Hon.  Thomas  Ryan,  Hon. 
William  D.  Washburn,  Hon.  L.  C.  Houck,  Hon.  R.  T.  Van  Horn,  Hon.  Orlando 
Hubbs.] 

Headquarters  of  the 

Republican  Congressional  Committee,  1882, 

520  Thirteenth  Street,  Northwest, 

Washington,  D.  C. ,  May  15,  1882. 

Sir — This  committee  is  organized  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  Republi- 
can party  in  each  of  the  Congressional  districts  of  the  Union.  In  order  that  it  may  pre- 
pare, print  and  circulate  suitable  documents  illustrating  the  issues  which  distinguish  the 
Republican  party  from  any  other  and  may  meet  all  proper  expenses  incident  to  the  cam- 
paign, the  committee  feels  authorized  to  apply  to  all  citizens  whose  principles  or  in- 
terests are  involved  in  the  struggle.  Under  the  circumstances  in  which  the  country  finds 
itself  placed,  the  committee  believes  that  you  will  esteem  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  pleas- 
ure to  make  to  its  funds  a  contribution,  which  it   is  hoped  may  not  be  less  than  $ . 

The  committee  is  authorized  to  state  that  such  voluntary  contributions  from  persons  em- 
ployed in  the  service  of  the  United  States  will  not  be  objected  to  in  any  official  quarter. 

*  Note. — Not  Hubbell,  perhaps, for  he  disinterestedly  took  a  round  five  thousand  dollars 
— one-tenth  of  the  whole — for  his  own  dear  Michigan  in  1878,  and  doubtless  expects  ten 
thousand  dollars  this  year.  Surely  he  will  go  back  to  Washington  ;  and  what  gratitude 
from  the  "  shysters  and  camp-followers  "  of  his. 


172  CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM. 

The  labors  of  the  committee  will  affect  the  result  of  the  Presidential  election  in  1884 
as  well  as  the  Congressional  struggle  ;  and  it  may  therefore  reasonably  hope  to  have 
the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  all  who  look  with  dread  upon  the  possibility  of  the 
restoration  of  the  Democratic  party  to  the  control  of  the  Government. 

Please  make  prompt  and  favorable  response  to  this  letter  by  bank-check  or  draft  or 
postal  money  order,  payable  to  the  order  of  Jay  A.  Hubbell,  acting  treasurer,  P.O.  lock 
box  589,  Washington,  D.  C. 

By  order  of  the  committee.  D.  B.  HENDERSON,  Secretary. 

The  second  letter  had  the  true  highwayman  ring,  and  was  more  in  harmony 
"with  the  characteristics  of  the  stalwart  leaders.     It  was  as  follows  : 

Washington,  D.C.,  August  15,  1882. 

Sir — Your  failure  to  respond  to  the  circular  of  May  15,  1882,  sent  to  you  by  this 
committee,  is  noted  with  surprise.  It  is  hoped  that  the  only  reason  for  such  failure  is 
that  the  matter  escaped  your  attention  owing  to  press  of  other  cares. 

Great  political  battles  cannot  be  won  in  this  way.  This  committee  cannot  hope  to 
succeed  in  the  pending  struggle  if  those  most  directly  benefited  by  success  are  unwilling 
or  neglect  to  aid  in  a  substantial  manner. 

We  are  on  the  skirmish  line  of  1884,  with  a  conflict  before  us,  this  fall,  of  great 
moment  to  the  Republic,  and  you  must  know  that  a  repulse  now  is  full  of  danger  to  the 
next  Presidential  campaign. 

Unless  you  think  that  our  grand  old  party  ought  not  to  succeed,  help  it  now  m  its 
struggle  to  build  up  a  new  South,  in  which  there  shall  be,  as  in  the  North,  a  free  ballot 
and  a  fair  count,  and  to  maintain  such  hold  in  the  North  as  shall  insure  good  govern- 
ment to  the  country. 

It  is  hoped  that  by  return  mail  you  will  send  a  voluntary  contribution  equal  to  two 
per  cent,  of  your  annual  compensation,  as  a  substantial  proof  of  your  earnest  desire  for 
the  success  of  the  Republican  party  this  fall,  transmitting  by  draft  or  postal  money 
order,  payable  to  the  order  of  Jay  A.  Hubbell,  acting  Treasurer,  post-office  lock  box 
589,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Letters  of  the  Present  Campaign. 

The  tendencies  of  the  party  during  the  present  campaign  are  in*  the  same 
■direction,  but  artfully  concealed  to  avoid  a  clash  with  the  new  Civil  Service  law 
of  which  a  distinguished  Democrat,  Senator  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  was  the  author. 

The  party  still  has  a  covetous  affection  for  the  money  of  the  department  clerks, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  circular  : 

1421  New  York  Avenue,  Washington,  D.  C,  \ 

August  1,  1884.  \ 

The  undersigned  have  been  requested  by  the  Republican  National  Committee  to  act 
as  a  Finance  Committee  for  the  District  of  Columbia  in  the  collection  of  funds  to  be  used 
by  said  National  Committee  in  the  present  political  campaign.  We  have  agreed  to  act, 
and  have  organized  by  the  selection  of  A.  M.  Clapp  as  Chairman,  W.  IT.  Lowdermilk  as 
Secretary,  and  Green  B.  Raum  as  Treasurer.  On  and  after  this  date  we  will  be  prepared 
to  receive  and  receipt  for  such  sums  as  persons  may  wish  to  contribute  to  the  campaign 
fund  of  the  Republican  party. 

The  rooms  of  the  Committee,  142 1  N.  Y.  Ave.,  will  be  open  daily  from  8.30  a.  m.  to 

9  P.  M. 

A.  M.  Clapp,  Chairman.  Green  B.  Raum,  Treas. 

W.  H.  Lowdermilk,  Sec'y.  Dr.  E.  A.  Adams. 

R.  T.  Greener. 

The  following  letters  sent  to  the  clerks  in  the  Departments  at  Washington,  the 
-first  one  accompanying  the  above  letter,  are  further  evidence  of  their  attempt  to 
circumvent  the  law  : 

33.  F.  Jones,  Pennsylvania,  Chairman.  Samuel  Fessenden,  Connecticut,  Secretary. 

Headquarters  Republican  National  Committee, 
No.  242  Fifth  Avenue, 

New  York  City,  August  8,  1884. 

[dictated  letter.] 

Dear  Sir  :  The  pending  Presidential  campaign  is  of  unusual  importance  to  the 
country.      Every  Republican  is  deeply  interested  in  its  result.    The  National  Committee, 


CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM.  173 

on  behalf  of  the  Republican  party,  desires  to  make  it  justly  vigorous  and  effective,  and 
success  certain  in  November.  Funds  are  required,  however,  to  meet  the  lawful  and 
proper  expenses  of  the  campaign;  and,  to  provide  the  same,  the  Committee  finds  itself 
dependent  upon  the  liberality  of  Republicans  to  make  such  voluntary  contributions  as 
their  means  will  permit,  and  as  they  feel  inclined  to  give.  You  are  therefore  respectfully 
invited  to  send,  as  soon  as  you  conveniently  may,  by  draft  on  New  York  or  postal 
money  order  to  the  order  of  B.  F.  Jones,  Chairman  Republican  National  Committee,  No. 
242  Fifth  avenue,  New  York  City,  such  sum  as  you  may  desire  to  contribute  for  the 
objects  before  mentioned.      A  receipt  for  the  same  will  be  sent  by  return  mail. 

The  Committee  cheerfully  calls  the  attention  of  every  person  holding  any  office, 
place,  or  employment  under  the  United  States  or  any  of  the  Departments  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, to  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress  entitled:  "An  act  to  regulate  and 
improve  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States,"  approved  January,  16,  1883,  and  states 
that  its  influence  will  be  exerted  in  conformity  therewith. 

Respectfully, 

B.  F.  JONES,  Chairman. 

Headquarters  Republican  State  Committee, 
(St.  Cloud  Hotel,  Parlor  C). 
Chairman — Thomas  V.  Cooper. 
Secretaries — George  Pearson,  Chief ;  Joseph  M.  Gazzam,  E.  F.  Acheson,  Joseph  Ad. 
Thomson,  John  H.  Landis,  John  S.  Blair,  W.  H.  Ritter,  Wm.  B.  Huston,  George  O.  Cor- 
nelius, John  A.  Seiders,  Charles  F.  Evans,  Ezra  Lukens,  J.  D.  Laciar,  A.  W.  McCoy. 

[Dictated.]  Philadelphia,  1884. 

Dear  Sir  :  The  Republican  State  Committee  of  Pennsylvania  is  compelled  to  call 
upon  all  friends  of  the  cause,  whose  interests  or  inclination  it  is  to  give,  for  the  funds 
necessary  to  sustain  its  efforts  in  the  pending  Presidential  campaign — a  campaign  never 
exceeded  in  public  concern  or  importance  in  the  history  of  the  country.  It  involves  both 
our  industrial  and  political  welfare. 

I  have  the  honor  to  solicit  from  you  such  contribution  to  the  State  Committee's 
treasury  as  your  devotion  to  the  party  may  prompt  you  to  make,  and  to  suggest  that 
eariy  contributions  not  only  enable  us  to  do  better  work,  but  to  promptly  extend  aid 
where  it  is  most  needed,  without  waste  or  confusion. 

You  are  aware  that  the  present  laws  of  the  United  States  and  Pennsylvania — which 
law  shall  be  faithfully  observed  by  this  Committee — prohibit  the  assessment  of  office- 
holders for  political  purposes.  The  right,  however,  of  all,  whether  office-holders  or  not, 
to  send  to  their  Committee  amounts  commensurate  with  their  interest  in  the  contest,  is 
not  questioned,  either  by  the  law  or  public  sentiment. 

The  appeal  of  your  State  Committee  is  therefore  directed  to  all  whom  it  has  reason  to 
believe  are  willing  and  able  to  give.    Send  by  postal  order  or  check  to 

THOS.  V.  COOPER,  Chairman. 

This  letter  was  sent  to  a  clerk  in  one  of  the  departments  at  Washington,  receiv- 
ing an  annual  salary  of  $1,400.  He  holds  a  receipt  from  Chairman  Cooper  for 
$40  ;  and  similar  letters  have  been  sent  postmasters  throughout  Pennsylvania. 

Democratic  Principles  and  Protests. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  1882,  Senator  Pendleton  offered  in  the  Senate  a  resolu- 
tion instructing  the  Committee  on  Civil  Service  and  Retrenchment  to  inquire 
whether  any  attempt  had  been  made  to  levy  and  collect  assessments  for  political 
partisan  purposes  from  any  employees  of  the  Government.  In  speaking  upon 
this  resolution  he  made  some  very  pointed  remarks  upon  the  Hubbell  assessment 
letter,  which  we  have  published  above.     He  said  : 

"Mr.  President,  when  I  offered  this  resolution  two  or  three  weeks  ago  I  was 
anxious  for  information.  I  did  not  know  the  state  of  facts  as  they  existed  at  that  time. 
I  had  seen  mentioned  in  the  newspapers  that  the  Republican  Congressional  Committee 
was  about  to  take  means  to  replenish  its  funds,  and  vague  intimations  were  given  that  a 
circular  under  the  form  of  a  request  for  voluntary  contributions,  but  in  fact  a  demand 
for  specific  sums  of  money,  was  being  distributed  among  the  employees  of  the  Depart- 
ments and  the  employees  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.     I  had  also  heard  that  this 


174  CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM. 

■circular  was  drafted  by  authority,  and  that  its  language  conveyed  covert  promises,  with 
implied  threats,  in  case  the  demands  were  not  acceded  to. 

"I  was  quite  astonished,  somewhat  startled,  when  I  found  that  this  resolution  met 
with  objection.  I  had  supposed  that  no  Senator  would  object  to  having  the  truth 
discovered  as  to  this  circular  and  its  intent  ;  and  certainly  that  no  Senator  would  object 
to  the  inquiry  whether  contributions  were  being  levied  under  the  guise  of  invitations  for 
voluntary  contributions. 

"  Mr.  President,  I  was  not  quite  as  much  astonished  as  those  words  would  imply, 
and  candor  requires  me  to  say  that  I  was  more  astonished  at  the  form  than  the  substance 
of  the  objection.  I  had  thought  if  gentlemen  objected  to  it  at  all  they  would  not  do  so 
in  express  words,  but  would  consign  my  resolution  to  an  untimely  grave  in  the  friendly 
grasp  of  a  committee  of  investigation. 

"  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  desired  information  and  was  sincerely  seeking  it.  A  friend  of 
mine  who  sits  upon  this  floor  and  who  has  some  opportunities  of  knowledge  gave  to  me 
one  of  the  circulars.  He  gave  it  rather  in  confidence,  though  not  entirely  so,  rather 
with  the  understanding  that  I  should  use  it  for  my  own  information  than  otherwise  ;  but 
I  was  enabled  to  hand  back  that  circular  to  him  within  two  days,  not  having  exhibited 
it  to  anybody  else  and  scarcely  having  had  time  to  read  it  myself,  for  as  soon  as  the 
resolution  appeared  in  the  newspapers  I  received  from  many  cities  and  from  many 
States  and  from  many  classes  of  employees  of  this  Government  copies  of  the  circular 
which  had  been  sent  to  them.  I  have  in  my  hand  quite  a  number  of  copies  of  it.  It  is 
very  nicely  gotten  up,  written  with  care,  as  nicely  as  a  billet  doux  between  lovers  or  an 
hospitable  invitation  to  dinner. 

3*  *  *  *  *  ****** 

"  As  far  as  I  have  seen,  all  of  these  circulars  are  in  exactly  the  same  language,  except 
that  a  blank  was  left  in  each  orignally  to  be  filled  by  the  amount  which  a  certain  specified 
proportion  of  the  salary  that  the  man  received  would  reach.  Now,  sir,  in  order  that 
there  may  be  no  charge  of  unfair  dealing  with  this  committee  and  its  circular,  I  have 
read  to  the  Senate  every  word  of  it,  and  I  ask  the  Senate  to  consider  it  a  little  in  detail. 

"The  committee  is  organized  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  Republican 
party  in  each  of  the  Congressional  districts  of  the  Union.  " 

"Party  from  beginning  to  end,  the  country  nowhere  alluded  to — 'the  interests  of  the 
Republican  party  in  each  of  the  Congressional  districts.' 

"In  order  that  it  may  prepare,  print,  and  circulate  suitable  documents  illustrating  the 
issues  which  distinguish  the  Republican  party  from  any  other,  and  may  meet  all  proper 
expenses  incident  to  the  campaign  the  committee  feels  authorized — 

"  '  Feels  authorized  !  '  What  necessity  is  there  to  have  authority  to  invite  gentlemen 
who  desire  to  make  a  voluntary  contribution  to  a  political  fund  ?  What  is  the  necessity 
for  any  authority  for  an  invitation  of  that  kind  ? 

"  '  Authorized  !  '  By  whom  authorized — for  what  purpose  authorized  ?  To  apply  for 
contributions  to  the  Republican  expense  fund  !  Apply  to  whom  ?  Apply,  to  '  all  those 
whose  interests  are  involved  in  this  struggle.' 

"  The  committee  discriminates  very  closely  between  those  whose  principles  lead  them 
to  desire  the  success  of  the  Republican  party  and  those  whose  interests  are  involved  in 
the  struggle  ;  those  whose  principles  or  interests  induce  them  to  take  an  interest  in  this 
struggle.  Who  are  they,  Mr.  President  ?  Who  are  interested  beyond  what  their  principles 
require  in  the  success  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  coming  campaign  ?  It  is  the  officers  ; 
it  is  the  office-holders  ;  it  is  those  who  enjoy  the  powers  and  emoluments  of  office  ;  it  is 
those  who  are  in  possession  of  the  political  power  and  the  moneyed  emolument  at  the 
disposal  of  the  party.  When  application  is  to  be  made  for  authority  to  apply  to  these 
offices  for  a  money  contribution,  who  is  it  that  can  give  the  authority  to  make  the  applica- 
tion ?  Manifestly  those  who  have  the  power  of  appointment  and  dismissal  ;  manifestly 
those  who  can  say  to  these  gentlemen  whose  interests  are  involved,  '  contribute  to  the 
success  of  this  party  or  the  power  of  appointment  and  dismissal  is  hung  over  your  head.' 
I  submit  to  the  gentlemen  on  this  committee  that  the  paraphrase  was  entirely  unnecessary. 
I  submit  that  the  circumlocution  was  entirely  out  of  place,  and  that  it  would  have  been 
much  more  direct  and  much  more  pointed  and  equally  delicate  to  have  said,  '  we  are 
authorized  by  those  who  have  the  power  of  appointment  and  dismissal  to  say  to  you  whose 
offices  are  involved  in  this  struggle  that  we  are  authorized  to  make  this  application  for 
money  to  you.' 

"  The  circular  starts  out  with  a  declaration  on  its  face,  which  any  man  who  can  read 
at  all  Can  read  between  the  lines:  We  are  authorized  by  those  who  hold  your  places  in 
their  hands  to  apply  to  you  office-holders  ot  the  Grovernment  to  make  this  contribution 
because  your  interests  are  involved  in  this  struggle. 

"  The  circular  continues: 


CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM.  175 

"  Under  the  circumstances  in  which  the  country  finds  itself  placed,  the  committee 
believes  that  you  will  esteem  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  make  to  its  fund  a 
contribution. 

11  'A  privilege  and  a  pleasure  !  '  Indeed,  a  blessed  privilege;  an  exquisite  pleasure  ! 
These  officers  forsooth,  would  never  have  had  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  this  privilege 
and  pleasure  if  this  committee  had  not  given  them  the  opportunity  and  the  method  ;  the 
opportunity  in  the  sinking  circumstances  of  the  fortunes  ot  the  Republican  party,  and  the 
method  by  contributions  to  the  committee  !  Knowing  that  these  office-holders  would  be 
excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  this  privilege  and  this  pleasure,  except  for  the  invitation 
■of  this  committee,  thus  kindly  tendered  to  them  ;  knowing  that  as  soon  as  they  heard  it 
these  officers  would  be  able  and  willing,  nay,  would  be  eager  and  anxious,  to  embrace 
the  opportunity,  this  committee,  fearing  that  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm  and  desire  to 
indulge  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  privilege  and  pleasure  the  office-holders  might  con- 
tribute in  excess  of  what  was  proper,  or  fearing  on  the  other  hand  lest  an  ascetic  self- 
denial  might  keep  them  below  the  bounds  of  legal  moderation,  inform  the  office-holders 
that  the  committee  judge  it  would  be  about  right  that  they  should  enjoy  this  privilege 
and  pleasure  to  the  extent  of  $20  worth;  and  then  fearing  that  that  might  be  a  damper 
upon  their  ardor,  the  committee  express  the  hope  that  the  contribution  shall  not  be  less 
than  the  amount  suggested  by  the  committee,  to  wit,  $20. 

"The  committee  is  authorized  to  state  that  such  voluntary  contributions — 

"'Voluntary  contribution!'  Voluntary  as  the  contribution  the  traveler  makes 
to  the  pocket  of  the  highwayman  when  commanded  to  stop  and  hold  up  his  hands; 
voluntary  as  the  contribution  which  the  man  of  the  world  makes  to  the  harvest  of  the 
Great  Reaper  when  he  puts  in  his  scythe. 

"  '  Voluntary  contributions  from  persons  employed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States 
will  not  be  objected  to  in  any  official  quarter.  ' 

"  Mr.  President,  is  a  voluntary  contribution  objected  to  anywhere  ?  And  does  it 
need  any  close  discrimination  as  to  that  passage  to  see  that  it  means  that,  while 
contributions  will  not  be  objected  to  in  any  official  quarter,  a  refusal  to  make  the 
contribution  will  meet  with  the  condemnation  of  all  official  quarters  ? 

"  'The  labors  of  the  committee  will  affect  the  result  of  the  Presidential  election  in 
1884,  as  well  as  the  Congressional  struggle,  and  it  may  therefore  reasonably  hope  to 
have  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  all  who  look  with  dread  upon  the  possibility 
of  the  restoration  of  the  Democratic  party  to  the  control  of  the  Government.' 

"  '  With  dread  !'  Who  look  with  dread  upon  it  ?  What  sensible  man  in  this  country 
looks  with  dread  upon  it  ?  The  people  of  the  country  do  not  look  with  dread,  the 
material  interests  of  the  country  do  not  look  with  dread,  the  patriotism  of  the  country  does 
not  look  with  dread,  for  at  the  last  two  Presidential  elections  the  people  of  this  country 
have  been  as  nearly  as  possible  divided  in  numbers  upon  the  question  as  to  which  party 
better  deserves  success.  In  the  Presidential  election  before  the  last  it  is  an  undisputed 
fact  that  a  numerical  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  did  actually  vote  to 
restore  the  Democratic  party  to  power. 

"  'We  appeal  to  you  for  sympathy  and  assistance,  and  we  hope  you  will  make  prompt 
and  favorable  response  to  this  letter.'  How?  By  sympathy?  By  expressions  of 
confidence  ?  By  telling  us  the  political  necessities  of  your  neighborhood  ?  By  going 
forth  as  an  apostle  to  demonstrate  to  the  people  the  excellence  of  the  principles  of  the 
Republican  party  ?  No,  sir;  none  of  such  sympathy  we  want.  It  is  your  assistance, 
Avhich  we  hope  you  will  promptly  send  to  us  by  sending  '  a  bank  check,  or  draft,  or 
postal  money  order,'  payable  to  the  treasurer  of  this  committee. 

"Now,  Mr.  President,  I  will  not  insult  the  Senate  by  undertaking  to  prove  to  it  that 
this  is  no  invitation  for  a  voluntary  contribution.  I  will  not  waste  its  time  by  showing 
that  it  is  a  demand  for  a  specific  sum  of  money,  levied  according  to  a  rule,  accompanied 
by  a  promise  and  a  threat.  'Your  purse  or  your  official  life,'  is  the  alternative  offered  ; 
or  to  use  the  language  of  President  Garfield  in  describing  a  circular  almost  identical  in 
terms  with  this,  '  It  is  a  circular  sent  to  the  employees  of  the  Government  upon  the  dis- 
tinct understanding  that  if  they  fail  to  make  return  according  to  the  demand,  in  check  or 
postal  money-order,  others  will  be  found  to  take  their  places  who  will  receive  their 
salaries  and  pay  up  the  assessment.' 

"Mr.  President,  to  whom  has  the  circular  been  sent?  I  venture  to  say  here  upon  this 
floor,  and  I  speak  it  upon  information  which  challenges  my  belief,  that  this  circular  has 
been  sent  out  to  every  person  whose  name  can  be  found  on  any  of  the  rolls  of  employees 
of  the  Government,  however  remote  they  may  be  from  the  source  of  power  itself.  The 
circular  has  been  sent  to  the  Boston  custom-house — seven  hundred  copies  of  it — -and 
a  demand  made  for  an  aggregate  of  $15,000.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  armory  at  Spring- 
field, and  an  assessment  of  $18  been  made  upon  each  armorer  in  that  institution.  It  has 
been  sent  to  the  great  offices  in  New  York,  the  post-office  and  the  custom-house,  and  the 


176  CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM. 

collector's  office,  and  the  various  institutions  connected  with  the  Government  there. 
They  had  won  exceptional  credit  by  reason  of  their  freedom  from  the  debasing  arts  of 
political  assessments,  and  yet  are  to  be  again  plunged  into  the  mire  from  which  they  so 
laboriously  have  emerged.  It  has  been  sent  out  to  employees  at  Chicago,  and  assess- 
ments made  there  at  $9.30.  It  has  been  sent  to  every  postmaster  in  the  country  ;  as 
least  I  have  returns  from  almost  every  State  east  of  Nevada.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  men 
engaged  upon  the  works  on  the  Ohio  river  at  Marietta,  and  $18  has  been  assessed  and 
demanded  of  men  who  day  by  day  for  their  daily  wages  cut  stone  in  making 
the  dam.  It  has  been  sent  to  every  employee  in  the  Departments  in 
Washington,  every  clerk,  and  they  have  been  assessed  in  various  amounts 
from  $18  to  $50.  This  circular  has  been  sent  to  men  who  are  engaged 
in  daily  labor  on  the  Capitol  grounds,  digging  up  and  beautifying  these  grounds, 
and  $6  has  been  assessed  upon  each  of  them.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  boys  in  the  Print- 
ing Office,  to  whom  you  pay  only  a  dollar  a  day  and  furlough  them  without  pay,  and  $7 
has  been  demanded  from  each  of  them.  It  has  been  sent  to  enlisted  men  in  the  army, 
and  an  assessment  of  $18  made  upon  men  who  are  paid  from  the  army  appropriation 
bill.  Wherever  a  name  can  be  found  upon  the  pay-roll  of  the  government  for  any 
amount,  great  or  small,  this  circular  has  been  sent,  and  it  is  being  sent  now  to  those  to 
whom  time  has  not  allowed  it  to  be  sent  before. 

"  I  said  it  had  been  sent  to  every  clerk  in  all  these  departments.  Why,  sir,  it  has  been 
sent  to  those  unfortunate  ladies  whom  the  exigencies  of  life  now  compel  to  support  a 
family  off  the  pittance  earned  painfully  by  them,  which  would  scarcely  have  sufficed  to 
dispense  their  yearly  charity  in  other  days.  It  has  been  sent  to  the  women  who  scrub 
out  the  departments  in  this  city,  and  whose  poverty  is  so  great  that  when  they  leave  for 
their  daily  work  they  are  obliged  to  lock  up  in  their  close  and  fetid  room  the  infant  children 
who  cannot  be  allowed  to  wander  in  danger  m  the  streets.  It  has  been  sent  to  the 
employees  of  the  Senate,  and  men  have  been  required  to  pay  $30  in  order  that  they 
may  hold  their  places. 

Nay,  more,  Mr.  President,  it  has  been  sent,  at  least  in  the  other  House,  and  possibly 
in  this,  to  the  little  pages,  bright,  intelligent,  active  little  fellows,  who  do  the  bidding  of 
members  there  and  here.  I  imagine  I  can  see  this  grave  committee,  with  this  circular 
in  their  hands,  going  to  one  of  these  little  pages  and  saying  to  him  by  his  appreciation 
of  the  emergencies  of  the  country,  by  his  appreciation  of  the  excellence  of  Republican 
practices,  by  his  dread  of  the  restoration  of  the  Democratic  Party  to  power,  he  shall 
make  his  contribution  of  $9  in  order  to  avert  such  a  terrible  calamity. 

Mr.  President,  if  this  were  not  a  sad  scene  of  political  degeneracy  and  partisan 
tyranny  it  would  be  in  many  of  its  aspects  abroad  farce. 

"  I  have  no  fitting  words  in  which  to  express  my  apprehension  of  the  degradation  and 
danger  of  this  whole  system,  of  which  this  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  outgrowths.  It 
demoralizes  and  breaks  down  every  man  connected  with  it,  those  who  give  and  those 
who  take  alike.  Among  the  names  on  this  circular  are  some  of  our  own  cherished 
associates  and  members,  men  of  the  other  House  also,  who  stand  high  in  the  estimation 
of  their  party  and  their  country.  They  are  important  factors  in  weilding  the  political 
destinies  not  only  of  their  party  but  of  their  country,  honorable,  upright,  excellent 
gentlemen,  to  whom  we  would  willingly  commit,  and  do  commit  our  honor,  and  if 
necessary  would  commit  our  lives,  men  who  could  not  be  forced  even  by  torture  to  go 
themselves  and  with  this  circular  in  their  hand  to  make  applications  to  these  persons  to 
whom,  it  is  sent ;  men  who  could  not  be  induced  to  do  it  ;  who  would  feel  it  to  be  a 
personal  dishonor  to  do  it.  Yet  together  they  combine  and  put  in  operation  this  machine 
which  has  no  heart  to  be  touched,  no  body  to  be  punished,  no  soul  to  be  damned,  to 
visit  the  houses  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and  extract  from  them  for  political 
partisan  purposes  a  large  proportion  of  their  hard  earnings. 

"It  degrades  the  men  to  whom  it  is  sent.  What  sense  of  self-respect  can  there  be  in  a 
man  who  feels  himself  compelled  to  submit  to  this  extortion  which  his  honest  judgment 
abhors  and  which  his  penury  rejects,  and  yet  is  obliged  with  a  hypocritical  smile  to  pre- 
tend that  it  is  a  voluntary  contribution  ?  What  faithful,  honest  personal  service  in  office 
can  a  man  render  when  he  feels  that  upon  his  very  best  service  is  put  this  badge  of  servi- 
tude? How  can  he  admire  with  his  whole  heart  as  he  ought  and  devote  himself 
absolutely  to  the  duties  of  an  office  when  he  is  made  to  buy  with  money,  that  office  which 
he  knows,  and  everybody  who  will  think  a  moment  knows,  is  a  public  trust  involving 
duties  to  the  public  ?  What  discipline  can  there  be  in  a  system  when  all  above  him  and 
all  below  him  are  bound  together  by  the  conciousness  of  this  common  degradation  ?  The 
galley  slaves  are  chained  together,  their  proximity  making  them  conscious  of  the  common 
infamy,  and  the  common  degradation  and  the  common  punishment  make  them  hate  and 
despise  and  dread  and  suspect  and  injure  each  other. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM.  177 

"  Mr.  President,  this  system  is  a  great  wrong  to  the  people.  A  fair  day's  work  and  a 
fair  day's  pay  is  common  honesty  imported  into  our  Government.  If  these  employees 
can  have  extracted  and  abstracted  from  their  salary  2  or  4  or  10  per  cent.,  and  yet 
sufficient  remuneration  left  to  them,  then  I  say  the  deduction  should  be  made  directly 
from  their  salary  and  be  left  in  the  Treasury. 

"I  will  not  speak  of  what  this  system  may  be,  if  against  their  interest,  against  their 
will,  against  their  moneyed  capacity,  these  men  are  compelled  to  submit  these  contribu- 
tions if  they  are  extracted  out  of  the  suffering  of  themselves  and  their  families.  When  I 
see  that  this  system  tends  to  such  degradation,  such  demoralization,  to  the  breaking  down 
of  our  civil  administration,  the  destruction  of  the  instinct  and  patriotism  in  our  country, 
I  declare  upon  my  conscience  I  believe  it  would  be  better  for  the  country,  better  for  the 
service,  better  for  the  people,  if  a  felonious  hand  were  put  into  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States  and  this  money  were  abstracted  for  this  purpose  and  a  clear  thing  be  made 
of  it  by  charging  it  up  to  "soap." 

*  *  *      •  #  *  *  * 

"  Have  we  not  been  told,  are  we  not  told  constantly,  that  this  Republican  party  is  the 
party  of  God  and  morality  in  the  country  ?  Has  not  the  gentleman  declared  with  a 
seriousness  of  tone  and  sincerity  of  manner  that  leaves  no  room  to  doubt  his  conviction  of 
the  truth,  that  it  is  the  best  and  purest  party  that  has  ever  existed  in  this  government  ? 
Why,  sir,  I  have  read  the  description  of  a  party  like  this  :  '  But  all  their  works  they  do 
for  to  be  seen  of  men  ;  they  make  broad  their  phylacteries,  and  enlarge  the  borders  of 
their  garments  ;  and  love  the  uppermost  rooms  at  feasts  and  the  chief  seats  in  the  syna- 
gogues ;  and  greetings  in  the  markets,  and  to  be  called  of  men,  '  "  Rabbi,  rabbi."  ' 

"  And  if,  after  making  all  the  professions  of  purity  and  excellence  and  faith,  when 
you  happen  through  the  flimsy  device  to  be  caught  in  evil  practices,  you  seek  to  screen 
yourselves  from  the  consequences  behind  the  examples  of  others,  there  will  be  denounced 
against  you  that  terrible  anathema.  '  Woe  unto  you  *  *  *  hypocrites,  for  ye 
devour  widow's  houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make  long  prayer  ;  therefore  ye  shall  receive 
the  greater  damnation.' 

"  Mr.  President,  men  of  our  race  and  language  have  always  been  tenacious  of  the 
purity  of  the  civil  service  of  their  government.  Even  as  our  fathers  emerged  from  the 
ages  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  calling  dark,  they  began  to  require  that  the  purity  of 
civil  service  should  be  the  characteristic  of  their  kings  as  well  as  of  their  commons.  Six 
hundred  and  fifty  and  more  years  ago  King  John  in  the  Magna  Charta  was  compelled  to 
declare  : 

"We  will  not  make  any  justiciars,  constables,  sheriffs  or  bailiffs,  but  of  such  as  are 
knowing  in  the  law  of  the  realm,  and  are  disposed  duly  to  observe  it.  " 

"Nearly  a  hundred  years  afterward,  in  the  time  of  Richard  II.,  in  1288,  the  Com- 
mons passed  a  statute — 

"That  the  chancellor,  treasurer,  etc.,  the  justices  of  the  one  bench,  and  of  the  other, 
etc.,  and  all  other  that  shall  be  called  to  ordain,  name  or  make  justices  of  the  peace, 
sheriffs,  escheators,  customs,  comptrollers  or  any  other  officer  or  minister  of  the  king, 
shall  be  firmly  sworn  that  they  shall  not  ordain,  name  or  make  justice  of  the  peace, 
sheriff,  escheator,  customer,  comptroller,  nor  other  officer  or  minister  of  the  king  for  any 
gift  or  brocage,  favor  or  affection  ;  nor  that  none  which  pursueth,  by  him  cr  other,  privily 
or  openly,  to  be  in  any  manner  office,  shall  be  put  in  the  same  office  or  in  any  other  ;  but 
that  they  shall  make  all  such  offieers  and  ministers  of  the  best  and  most  lawful  men,  and 
sufficient  to  their  estimation  and  knowledge.  " 

"Lord  Coke  says  that  that  was — 

"A  law  worthy  to  be  written  in  letters  of  gold,  but  more  worthy  to  be  put  in  due 
execution.  " 

"A  few  years  passed  on  and  Edward  IV.,  pressed  by  his  necessities,  commenced  to 
levy  'benevolence'  upon  the  commons  of  England,  which  the  people  very  turbulentiy, 
as  he  thought,  called  'malevolence,'  and  thereupon,  in  the  first  year  of  Richard  III.,  the 
bloody  monster  as  he  was  called,  Lord  Coke  mentions  how  'the  exaction  under  the  good 
name  of  benevolence?  begun  in  12  Edward  4,  came  to  be  so  that  'many  of  the  people  did 
much  grudge  at  it  and  called  it  a  malevolence. '  He  refers  to  I  Richard  III.,  wherein 
the  commons  recite  : 

"That  'the  commons  of  this  realm,  by  new  and  unlawful  inventions  and  inordinate 
covetise  against  the  law  of  this  realm,  have  been  put  to  great  thraldom  and  importable 
charges  and  exactions,  and  in  especial  by  a  new  imposition  named  a  benevolence,  whereby 
divers  years,  the  subjects  and  commons  of  this  realm,  against  their  wills  and  freedom, 
have  paid  great  sums  of  money  ' — 

12 


178  CIVIL    SERVICE   REFORM. 

"After  which,  and  other  recitals,  it  is  ordained — 

"That  his  subjects  and  the  commonality  of  this  his  realm,  from  henceforth  in  no  wise 
be  charged  by  none  such  charge  (exaction)  or  imposition  called  benevolence,  nor  by  such 
like  charge;  and  that  such  exactions  called  benevolences  afore  this  time  taken  betake  for 
no  example  to  make  such  or  any  like  charge  of  any  his  said  subjects  of  this  realm  here- 
after, but  it  be  damned  and  annulled  forever." 
_  ?  "  And  Lord  Coke,  speaking  of  this  very  statute,  I  Richard  III,  says  that — 

"Of  the  acts  of  Richard  the  Third  one  of  the  wisest  was  that  of  i  Ric.  III.,  ch.  2,  ' an 
act  to  free  the  subjects  from  benevolences  /'  But  he  did*  not  adhere  to  it.  There  is 
mention  of  letters  sent  by  him  exacting  these  benevolences  and  specifying  the  sum  which 
each  person  was  required  to  give.  It  is  stated  that  '  this '  was  '  a  fatal  blow  at  what  re- 
mained of  his  popularity.' 

"  History  repeats  itself.  Benevolence  exacted  for  his  private  purposes  by  the  king 
which  the  people  called  malevolences,  and  which  were  rejected  and  repudiated  by  the 
Commons.  He  seemed  to  favor  the  rejection,  but  he  sent  out  circulars  even  in  those 
days  to  his  good  subjects,  and  specified  in  those  circulars  the  amount  of  money  which  he 
required  them  to  pay.      Behold  the  example  which  this  committee  has  followed  ! 

"  Mr.  President,  to  these  principles  embodied  in  Magna  Charta,  embodied  in  these 
statutes,  the  people  of  our  race  have  always  been  true.  Sometimes  they  have  wandered, 
sometimes  they  have  straggled  from  the  paths,  but  they  have  speedily  returned  to  them, 
and  in  their  return  they  have  always  been  led  in  England  by  the  Commons,  and  in  this 
country  by  the  Democratic  party.  To-day  the  time  has  come  when  they  shall  be  led 
again  to  appreciate  the  beneficence  of  a  pure  civil  administration.  To-day  the  Democratic 
party  is  putting  itself  at  the  head  of  that  return,  civil  service  reform  is  writ  on  its  escutch- 
eon and  emblazoned  on  its  banner.  By  its  strength  and  in  order  to  perfect  it,  the 
Democratic  party  will  sooner  or  later  come  into  power.  I  say  to  Senators  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Chamber  that  the  sooner  it  comes  into  power  the  better  it  will  be  for  them 
and  for  the  country.  It  may  for  a  moment  wound  their  susceptibilities,  but  it  will  advan- 
tage their  prosperity  and  their  liberties.  When  that  time  does  come,  when  we  shall  take 
possession  of  this  Government,  when  we  shall  put  in  the  high  places  of  power  our  worthiest 
and  best,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  chief  of  the  state,  under  the  people  the 
source  and  fountain  of  honor  and  powers  in  this  country,  will  be  able  to  say  to  all  as 
Van  Artevelde  said  in  response  to  Vauclaire  who  was  thanking  him  for  his  promotion  : 

Nay  !  say  no  more, 
You  owe  me  nothing  ;  what  have  I  to  give 
Is  held  in  trust,  and  parted  with  for  services  ; 
Value  received  is  writ  on  my  commissions; 
Nor  would  I  thank  the  man  that  should  thank  me 
For  aught  as  given  him  gratis.      *     *     * 

Supremacy  of  merit,  the  sole  means 
And  broad  highway  to  power.     *     *     * 

*  *     *     meritoriously  administer'd 
While  all  its  instruments  from  first  to  last, 
The  tools  of  state,  for  service  high  or  low, 

*  *     *     chosen  for  their  aptness  to  those  ends 
Which  virtue  meditates. 


THE   OVERTHROW    OF    MONOPOLIES.  179 


The  Overthrow  of  Monopolies. 

There  is  no  question  before  the  people  of  the  United  States  involving  such  vast 
interests  as  the  question  of  the  forfeiture  of  the  unearned  lands  granted  to  railroads, 
and,  it  may  be  added,  that  there  is  no  question  of  vast  public  concern  so  little  un- 
derstood. One  is  apt  to  be  dazed  by  the  magnitude  of  the  subject,  and  not  fully 
to  understand  it.  We  speak  in  this  chapter  of  bodies  of  land  larger  than  New 
England  ;  of  tracts  that  have  been  granted  to  corporations  equal  in  size  to  the 
kingdoms  that  have  ruled  the  world  ;  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres  that  have 
been  given  away,  valued  at  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.  "We  give  at  length 
the  history  of  these  grants,  present  tables  showing  the  amount  of  land  granted, 
and  give  references  to  the  law  in  each  case.  The  record  of  the  Republican  party 
on  this  question  has  been  made  ;  it  is  here  given  ;  by  the  record  let  it  be  judged. 

History  of  Our  Public  Lands. 

The  ' '  era  of  the  birth  of  monopolies  "  in  this  country  covers  but  a  short  period 
of  time,  but  the  injury  inflicted  is  incalculable.  That  era  dates  from  July  1,  1862, 
and  extends  to  March  3,  1871.  The  former  date  was  the  date  of  the  Union  Pacific 
act.  and  the  latter  the  Texas  Pacific  act.  From  July  1,  1862,  to  March  3,  1871, 
less  than  nine  years,  public  lands  were  voted  away  to  corporations  to  the  amount 
of  144,538,134  acres.  By  law,  the  roads  earned  49,410,380  acres,  leaving  95,127,754 
acres  that  can  and  should  be  reclaimed  for  the  people.  There  is  besides  this  nearly 
ten  million  acres,  comprised  in  grants  made  to  States  that  are  forfeitable  and 
should  be  reclaimed,  making  the  grand  total  of  lands  to  be  reclaimed  over  one 
hundred  million  acres  of  land. 

The  Public  Domain — How  Acquired. 

Perhaps  the  first  thing  that  should  be  done  to  enable  the  reader  to  clearly  under- 
stand the  condition  of  the  public  domain  is  to  show  its  original  extent,  how  portions 
of  it  have  been  disposed  of,  how  much  of  it  remains,  and  the  claims  that  are  made 
upon  it. 

The  United  States  held  and  claimed  no  land  in  the  thirteen  original  States,  so 
that  the  land  (341,782  square  miles,  or  218,740,480  acres)  included  within  the 
boundaries  of  these  States  is  not  to  be  considered. 

The  first  public  lands  belonging  to  the  Government  were  cessions  by  some  of 

these  States,  viz.  :  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Virginia,  North  and 

South  Carolina,   and  Georgia,   of  lands  held  by  them  under  grants  from  Great 

Britain.     The  amounts  ceded  were  by 

^cres. 

New  York  and  Massachusetts 202,187 

Virginia  (exclusive  of  Kentucky) 165,659,680 

South   Carolina 3,136,000 

Georgia 56,689,930 

North  Carolina 29,184,000 

-Connecticut, 4,300,000 

Total 259,171,797 


180  THE   OVERTHROW   OF    MONOPOLIES. 

Of  the  amount  ceded  by  Virginia,  Massachusetts  claimed  34,560,000  acres,  and 
Connecticut  claimed  23,000,000  acres  ;  but  whatever  rights  they  had,  if  any,  were 
given  to  the  general  Government. 

The  session  from  North  Carolina,  while  it  gave  jurisdictional  rights  did  not 
really  give  any  land,  as  the  territory  ceded  (now  the  State  of  Tennessee)  was  com- 
pletely covered  with  reservations.  This  makes  the  actual  number  of  acres 
acquired  by  these  sessions,  which  the  Government  could  sell  or  dispose  of,  to  be 
229,987,187  acres,  or  359,356  square  miles. 

Over  the  territory  now  included  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  Government  was 
given  jurisdictional  control,  but  it  acquired  no  lands,  as  these  like  the  lands  in 
Tennessee,  had  been  disposed  of  by  the  State  in  grants. 

The  next  land  acquired  was  by  the  treaty  of  1803  with  France,  when  the  terri- 
tory of  Louisiana  was  purchased,  at  a  total  cost  of  $27,267,622.  This  territory 
contained  756,961,280  acres,  being  larger  in  extent  than  the  original  thirteen  States 
and  all  their  territorial  possessions,  which  only  amounted  to  531,200,000  acres. 

This  purchase  included  parts  of  the  present  States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi, 
all  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Iowa  and  Nebraska,  nearly  all  of  Minnesota 
and  Kansas,  all  of  Dakota,  Montana,  Idaho,  and  the  Indian  Territory,  with  parts 
of  Wyoming  and  Colorado. 

The  next  acquisition  was  in  1819  from  Spain,  the  territory  of  Florida,  contain- 
ing 37,931,520  acres,  the  cost  being  $6,489,768. 

From  Mexico,  by  the  treaty  of  Gaudalupe  Hidalgo,  Feb.  2,  1848,  334,443,520 
acres  were  acquired,  costing  $15,000,000.  This  territory  comprises  California, 
Nevada,  part  of  Colorado,  Utah,  and  the  greater  part  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona. 

In  1850  the  Government  purchased  from  Texas  certain  lands  claimed  by  it, 
amounting  to  65,130,880  acres,  at  a  cost  of  $16,000,000. 

In  1853  the  Gadsden  purchase  was  made  from  Mexico,  comprising  29,142,400 
acres,  at  a  cost  of  $10,000,000.  This  purchase  forms  a  part  of  the  territory  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 

In  1867  the  territory  of  Alaska  was  purchased  for  $7,200,000,  and  comprises. 
369,529,600  acres. 

So  that  the  public  domain  of  the  United  States  consists  of 

Acres. 

Cession  from  the  original  States 229,987,187 

Louisiana  purchase 756,961,280 

Florida 37,931,520 

Mexican  Treaty 334,443,520 

Purchase  from  Texas, 61,892,480 

Gadsden  purchase 29,142,400 

Alaska 369,529,600 

Total. 1,819,887,987 

In  this  the  State  of  Texas  is  not  included,  as  by  the  treaty  of  annexation  it 
retained  the  ownership  of  all  public  lands  within  its  borders. 

How  the  Domair\  has   been   Disposed   of. 

Of  these  lands  up  to  June  30,  1880,  there  had  been  surveyed  752,557,195  acres, 
and  of  this  there  remained  undisposed  of,  24,802,711  acres,  making  with  the 
unsurveyed  land  the  number  of  acres  now  owned  by  the  Government, 
1,273,946,438. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF    MONOPOLIES.  181 

The  public  lands  (542,000,000  acres)  which  have  been  disposed  of,  have  been 

used  in  the  following  ways  : 

Acres. 

Sold 200,000,000 

Given  to  States  as  swamp  land  70,000,000 

Given  to  States  for  internal  improvement  . . . , 8,000,000 

Given  to  States  salt  springs  1,000,000 

Given  to  States  Florida,  Oregon  and  New  Mexico 3,000,000 

Given  to  States  for  schools  and  colleges 79,000,000 

Land  bounties  for  military  and  naval  service. ,  61,000,000 

Homesteads 56,000,000 

Timber  culture 10,000,000 

Canals  and  wagon  roads 6,000,000 

Desert  Land  act 1,000,000 

Given  to  States  for  railroads 36,000,000 

Patented  to  railroad  corporations 11,000,000 

Total 542,000,000 

This  leaves  only  6,000,000  acres  of  the  public  domain  which  has  been  disposed 
of  unaccounted  for,  and  this  has  been  disposed  of  at  various  times  in  small  bodies 
by  Congress  for  different  purposes. 

The  public  domain  not  disposed  of  consists,  as  before  stated,  of  1,273,946,438 
acres.  For  public  use  we  must  deduct  from  this  the  Indian  and  Military  Reserva- 
tions—157,000,000  acres,  and  private  land  claims,  80,000,000.  a  total  of  237,000,000  ; 
which  would  leave  the  available  lands  at  1,036,946,438  acres.  In  considering  its 
disposition,  from  this  we  must  deduct  Alaska  as  totally  unavailable  for  settlement 
and  cultivation,  which  leaves  676,000,000  acres  ;  26,000,000  of  this  is  in  the  South- 
ern States,  leaving  650,000,000  in  the  Territories  and  States  of  the  "West  through 
which  the  grant  railroads  are  being  built.  Of  this  amount,  at  least  400,000,000 
acres  are  mountain  lands,  unsuitable  for  cultivation. 

This  leaves  now  in  possession  of  the  United  States,  about  250.000,000  acres  of 
available  land,  of  which  the  various  States  to  which  grants  were  made  claim 
about  5,000,000  acres  ;  and  the  estimate  of  the  Land  Office  is  that  it  will  require 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  acres  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  the  cor- 
porations ;  and  these  claims  are  based  upon  grants  demanding  work  to  be  done 
which  has  not  been  done,  so  the  lands  have  not  been  earned,  and  are  justly  for- 
feited to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

Reports  of  various  Secretaries  of  the  Interior,  letters  and  orders  written  by 
them,  and  opinions  promulgated  by  the  Attorney-General,  which  will  be  given, 
show  that  unless  Congress  takes  definite  action  upon  this  subject,  titles  will  be 
made  to  a  large  portion  of  this  one  hundred  and  twenty -five  million  acres,  within 
a  short  time. 

The  Laws  for  Internal  Improvements. 

Having  shown  fully  the  amount  of  land  owned  by  the  United  States,  and  how 
it  was  acquired,  how  much  of  it  has  been  used,  we  will  now  examine  the  laws 
made  to  aid  in  building  railroads  and  other  internal  improvements. 

When  the  United  States  Government  was  youiig,  it  was  rich  in  land  and  poor 
in  other  resources,  and  the  policy  of  aiding  public  works  by  land  grants  was  in- 
augurated at  an  early  date,  but  until  1862  all  grants  were  made  to  the  States 
wherein  the  work  was  contemplated,  and  the  State  securing  the  ground  was  held 
to  account  for  it. 


182  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

The  State  of  Ohio  was  the  recipient  of  the  first  land  grant  for  public  improve- 
ments. April  30th,  1802,  one-twentieth  ;  (5  per  cent.)  of  the  net  proceeds  of  land 
sold  in  the  State,  was  given  it  for  "laying  out  and  making  roads."  March  3d, 
1803,  three  per  cent,  additional  was  given. 

In  1824  the  first  land  grant  was  made  for  canal  purposes,  and  the  last  was  made 
in  1866.  All  these  grants  were  to  States,  and  the  amounts  are  as  follows  :  Indiana, 
1,457,336 acres, ;  Michigan,  1,250,000  ;  Ohio,  1,100,361  ;  Wisconsin,  325,453  ;  Illi- 
nois, 290,915,  a  total  of  4,424,065  acres  granted  for  canals. 

For  military  roads  there  was  granted,  from  1863  to  1872,  to  Oregon,  777,097 
acres  ;  Michigan,  821,013  ;  Wisconsin,  302,930,  a  total  of  1,401,040  acres. 

The  first  grant  in  aid  of  a  railroad  was  made  September  20,  1850,  (Stat,  at 
Large,  vol.  9,  page  466)  to  the  State  of  Illinois.  The  even  numbered  sections,  for 
six  miles  on  each  side  of  the  road,  were  given,  and  indemnity  for  occupied  lands 
was  allowed  for  fifteen  miles  on  each  side.  The  sum  total  of  this  grant  was 
2,595,053  acres,  and  through  its  means  1,320  miles  of  railroad  were  built,  being  one 
mile  of  road  for  each  1,965  acres  of  land.  The  State,  through  its  charter,  required 
the  railroad  company  to  which  the  land  was  given  to  pay  five  to  seven  per  cent,  of 
its  gross  income  to  the  State.  Under  this  law  the  Illinois  Central,  up  to  1880,  had 
paid  the  State  over  $8,000,000,  and  the  future  annual  income  is  estimated  at  $350,- 
000,  the  stock  of  the  company  now  selling  at  a  premium  of  $45  even  after  such 
payments  had  been  made  to  the  State. 

The  same  bill  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  9,  page  466),  contained  a  similar  grant  to  the 
States  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  Mobile  and 
Ohio  road,  which  was  to  connect  with  the  Illinois  road  at  Cairo.  There  has  been 
patented  to  these  States,  for  this  road,  Mississippi,  737,130  acres,  Alabama,  419,428 
acres,  a  total  of  1,156,558  acres. 

The  next  land  grant  was  made  June  10,  1852  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  10,  page  8), 
and  was  to  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  amounts  granted  by  this  act  were  the  same 
as  had  been  given  to  Illinois,  and  by  this  grant,  which  amounted  to  1,764,710 
acres,  the  southwest  branch  of  the  Pacific  (now  the  San  Francisco),  292  miles  long, 
and  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,  292  miles  long,  a  total  of  584  miles  long,  were 
built.  Missouri  thus  secured  one  mile  of  railroad  for  every  three  thousand  acres 
of  land  granted.     (Round  numbers). 

February  9,  1853  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  10,  page  155),  the  act  was  passed  granting 
to  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  lands  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  road  from  Cairo, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  river,  to  Fulton,  on  Red  River,  and  from  opposite 
Memphis,  Tennessee,  via  Little  Rock  to  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas.  This  grant,  like 
the  others,  was  only  six  sections  to  the  mile,  but  was  afterwards  increased  to  ten. 
Under  this  law  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  &  Southern,  from  St.  Louis  and 
Cairo  to  Fulton,  339  miles  long,  has  been  built  and  has  received  1,486,383  acres  of 
land,  and  the  Memphis  &  Little  Rock  and  Little  Rock  &  Fort  Smith,  168  and  135 
miles  long,  have  received  1,058,560  acres.  Arkansas,  it  will  be  seen,  obtained  one 
mile  of  railroad  for  each  3,900  acres  of  land  granted. 

The  next  land  grant  act  was  approved  May  17,  1856  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11, 
page  15),  giving  to  the  States  of  Florida  and  Alabama  six  sections  per  mile  to  aid 
in  constructing  a  road  from  Montgomery,  Alabama,  to  Pensacola,  Florida,  from 
Jacksonville  to  Pensacola,  and  from  Amelia  Island  to  Tampa  Bay,  with  a  branch 
to  Cedar  Keys. 

The  State  of  Florida  was  entitled  under  this  bill  to  2,576,640  acres  of  land,  if 
the  roads  were  built,  and  has  received  1,595,146  acres,  having  forfeited  the 
remainder,  981,494  acres.     Alabama  never  did  anything  to  entitle  itself  to  any  of 


THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES.  183 

this  grant.  Florida  has  247  miles  of  land  grant  railways,  being  one  for  each 
seven  thousand  acres  of  land  granted. 

The  next  grant  was  June  3,  1856  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11,  page  17).  and  was  to 
the  State  of  Alabama.  This  was  six  sections  per  mile.  But  those  of  the  roads  to 
which  aid  was  granted  were  definitely  located,  and  they  were  entitled  to  1,142,784 
acres,  of  which  they  received  771,930  acres,  leaving  370,854  acres  unearned  and 
forfeited.  Alabama  has  228  miles  of  land  grant  railway,  and  that  shows  one  mile 
for  each  3,385  acres  of  land  granted. 

The  same  day,  that  is,  June  3,  1856  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11,  page  18),  a  grant 
was  made  to  Louisiana,  to  aid  in  building  a  road  from  opposite  Vicksburg,  Missis- 
sippi, to  Shreveport,  a  distance  of  189  miles  ;  from  New  Orleans  by  Opclousas  to 
the  State  line  of  Texas  ;  and  from  New  Orleans  to  the  State  line  in  the  direction  of 
Jackson,  Mississippi.  725,760  acres  of  land  were  set  apart  for  the  Vicksburg  and 
Shreveport  road,  and  353,212  acres  have  been  certified,  leaving  372,548  unearned 
and  forfeited.  No  lands  were  ever  given  for  the  road  from  New  Orleans  towards 
Jackson,  Miss.,  though  it  was  built  within  the  time  prescribed  by  the  granting 
act.  Louisiana  has  only  152  miles  of  land  grant  railway,  being  one  mile  for  each 
7,000  acres. 

On  the  same  day,  was  granted  land  to  the  State  of  Wisconsin  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol. 
11,  page  20)  to  aid  in  constructing  roads  from  "Madison  or  Columbus  via  Portage 
City  to  St.  Croix  river,  and  thence  to  the  west  end  of  Lake  Superior  ;  and  to  Bay- 
field ;  and  also  from  Fon  du  Lac,  on  Lake  Winnebago,  northerly  to  the  State 
line."  This  act  was  amended  several  times,  May  5,  1864  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  13, 
page  66),  June  21,  1866  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  14,  page  360),  and  March  3,  1875  (Stat, 
at  Large,  vol.  17,  page  634).  By  these  amendments  the  number  of  sections  to  the 
mile  was  increased  to  ten.  The  number  of  miles  of  road  required  to  be  built  was 
811 ;  the  number  of  miles  actually  built  was  633.  The  number  of  acres  estimated 
as  granted  was  4,514,052,  and  the  number  patented  to  the  grantee  was  2,262,608, 
while  the  amount  actually  earned  before  the  time  for  the  completion  of  the  roads 
expired  was  2,867,200  acres,  leaving  605,000  acres  due.  If  to  this  we  add  as  due 
amounts  earned  by  construction  of  roads  since  the  expiration  of  the  time  for  com- 
pletion as  per  charter,  an  additional  1,184,000  acres  is  due  Wisconsin.  Wisconsin 
has  received  3,413,650  acres  of  land,  for  which  it  has  built  633  miles  of  road,  that 
is,  in  round  numbers,  5,400  acres  for  each  mile  of  land  grant  railway. 

Michigan  also  secured  a  land  grant,  on  the  3d  of  June,  to  aid  in  construct- 
ing roads  from  "Little Bay  De  Noquette,  to  Marquette,  and  thence  to  Ontonagon, 
and  from  the  last  named  places  to  the  Wisconsin  State  line  ;  and  also  from  Amboy, 
by  Hillsdale  and  Lansing,  and  from  Grand  Rapids  to  some  point  on  or  near 
Traverse  Bay,  also  from  Grand  Haven  and  Pere  Marquette  to  Flint,  and  thence  to 
Port  Huron  "  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11,  page  21).  This  act  was  amended  June  18, 
1864  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  13,  pages  137  and  409)  ;  July  3,  1866  (Stat,  at  Large, 
vol.  14,  page  78) ;  March  2,  1867  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  14,  page  425) ;  May  20, 
1868  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  15,  page  252) ;  March  3,  1871  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  16, 
page  .586);  April  20,  1871  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  17,  page  643);  March  3,  1879 
(Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  20,  page  490). 

By  these  amendments  the  time  for  completing  the  roads  was  extended,  and  the 
grant  on  one,  from  Marquette  to  Ontonagon,  increased  to  ten  sections  per  mile. 
The  several  lines  aided  were  563  miles  long  ;  the  land  granted,  deducting  conflict- 
ing claims,  was  2,580,321  acres.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  these  roads  were 
built  during  the  time  required  by  law,  and  213  miles  have  been  completed  since, 
and  1,415,447  acres  of  land  have  been  certified  to  the  grantees.      Giving  lands  in 


184  THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 

proportion  for  the  number  of  miles  built  during  and  after  the  time  allowed  for 
completion,  the  State  would  be  entitled  to  840,000  acres  additional.  The  land  grant 
to  Michigan  was  2,580,020  ;  the  miles  of  land  grant  railway  are  1,005,  being  one 
mile  for  every  2,567  acres  granted. 

August  11,  1856  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11,  page  30),  Mississippi  was  granted  six 
sections  per  mile  for  three  roads,  no  part  of  any  of  which  were  constructed  within 
the  ten  years  required  by  the  granting  act,  and  two  of  the  grants  were  treated  as 
forfeited  after  August  11,  1866.  The  General  Land  office  having  no  hesitation  in 
this  case  to  require  the  full  pound  of  flesh  nominated  in  the  bond.  Though  of 
late  years  it  has  been  very  careful  of  the  rights  of  corporations,  it  had  no  hesitation 
in  the  case  of  a  State.  For  the  other  road,  completed  after  the  time  had  expired, 
the  State  secured  198,027  acres,  making,  with  the  787,180  acres  for  the  Mobile  and 
Ohio  road,  a  total  of  935,158  acres,  for  which  the  State  has  406  miles  of  road  to 
show,  being  one  mile  of  road  for  each  2,300  acres  of  land. 

Minnesota,  on  March  3,  1857  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  11,  page  195),  received  the 
next  land  grant,  which  act  was  amended  at  various  times,  as  follows  :  July  12,  '62, 
12-624  ;  March  8,  '65,  13-526  ;  July  13,  '66,  14-97  ;  March  3,  '71,  16-588  ;  March 
3,  '73,  17-631  ;  June  22,  '74,  18-203  ;  March  3,  '75,  18-511. 

The  original  granting  act  in  this  case  gave  six  sections,  as  in  previous  grants, 
but  in  1865,  after  the  commencement  of  the  system  by  which  private  corporations 
were  given  ten  and  twenty  sections  per  mile,  the  grants  to  Minnesota  were 
increased  to  ten. 

If  there  had  been  no  conflict  between  any  of  the  grants  the  State  would  have 
been  entitled  to  6,400,000  acres  of  land  for  these  roads,  and  has  secured  for  them 
6,130,000  acres. 

On  May  5,  '64  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  13,  page  64),  and  on  July  4,  '66  (vol.  14-87), 
Minnesota  was  given  additional  grants  for  other  roads,  for  which  it  has  secured 
1,230,000  acres  of  land,  a  total  to  that  State  of  7,360,000  acres.  For  this  land 
grant  it  has  to  show  one  thousand  eight  hundred  miles  of  completed  railway ; 
whilst  for  the  lands  given  to  private  corparations  it  has  only  five  hundred  miles. 
The  private  corporations  received  twenty  sections  per  mile,  and  the  State  got  one 
mile  of  road  for  each  4,100  acres. 

August  8, 1846  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  9,  page  77),  a  grant  was  made  to  the  Ter- 
ritory of  Iowa  to  improve  the  navigation  of  the  Des  Moines  river.  Nothing  was 
ever  done  with  it.  On  May  15,  1856,  a  grant  of  six  sections  per  mile  was  made  to 
Iowa  to  aid  in  building  five  roads.  July  12,  1862  (vol.  12,  543),  the  grant  of  1846 
to  the  Territory  was  increased  and  regiven  to  the  State,  to  aid  in  building  a  rail- 
road. May  12,  1864  (vol.  13,  page  42),  grants  were  made  for  three  other  roads, 
giving  ten  sections  per  mile  ;  and  June  2,  1864  (vol.  13,  page  98),  the  grant  to  the 
other  roads  was  increased  and  the  time  for  completion  extended. 

Iowa  has  received  under  these  grants  4,695,490  acres  of  land,  and  has  to  show 
for  it  1,672  miles  of  railroad  built  on  these  lines  (and  branches  built  by  them), 
increa  ing  the  mileage  for  this  grant  to  2,250,  showing  one  mile  of  road  to  each 
2,090  acres  of  land. 

March  3,  1863  (Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  12,  772),  Kansas  secured  a  grant  for  three 
roads.  Ten  sections  to  the  mile  was  given.  Grants  for  two  other  roads  were  made 
July  23,  1866  (vol.  14-210),  and  July  25,  1866  (vol.  14,  236).  Under  these  grants 
the  State  received  4,153,470  acres  of  land  and  has  for  it  1,210  miles  of  road,  being 
one  mile  of  road  for  each  3,430  acres  of  land. 

This  closes  the  lists  of  the  acts  making  grants  to  the  States  to  aid  in  building 
railroads  within  the  several  States.     No  grant,  until  after  1862,  was  for  more  than 


THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 


185 


six  sections  or  3,840  acres  per  mile.  The  number  of  States  to  which  lands  were 
granted  was  twelve,  and  the  amount  of  lands  given  was  less  than  thirty-five  mil- 
lions. The  following  table  will  show  the  States,  the  amount  of  lands  patented  or 
certified  to  the  States,  number  of  miles  built  by  land  grant  roads,  and  the  number 
of  miles  of  road  built  in  these  States,  which  includes  land  grant,  and  non-land 
grant  roads.     The  table  is  as  follows  : 


States. 


Number  of 

Land  patented  Miles  of  Rail-   acres  certi- 

or  Certified  to  way  by  Land  fied  to  each 

State.  Grant.         mile  of  Rail- 

I   way  built. 


Alabama 

Arkansas  .... 

Florida 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Louisiana 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Wisconsin 

Totals 


2,882,076 

822 

3,506 

2,376,891 

620 

3,833 

1,760,834 

247 

7,128 

2,595.053 

705 

3,680 

4,706,458 

1,672 

2,815 

4,449,226 

1,654 

2,696 

1,072,406 

152 

7,055 

3,229,010 

1,005 

3,210 

7,748,651 

2,389 

3,243 

935,158 

406 

2,303 

1,395,429 

703 

1,842 

2,807,583 

553 

5,077 

35,958,775 

10,928 

3 

a 
a 

O 

u  ' 

a 

m 
^  .i-c 


a 


Average  number  of  acres  of  land  per  mile,  3,290. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  average  number  of  acres  of  land  for  a  State  to  get  a 
mile  of  road  built  in  less  than  thirty-three  hundred  acres.  We  now  come  to  the 
first  direct  grant  to  a  corporation,  viz  : 

Land  Grants  to  Railroads. 

From  an  exhaustive  speech  by  Hon.  Wm.  S.  Holman  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, March  11,  1884,  we  quote  the  following  statistics  : 

TABLE  No.  1. 

Grants  of  land  made  by  the   United  States  to  aid  in  tlie  construction  of  certain 

railroads. 


9 
10 


Names  of  Railroads  for  which  Grants  were  Made. 


Number  of 

miles 

covered 

by  grants. 


Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe 

Kansas  City,  Lawrence  and  Southern  Kansas 
Burlington  and  Missouri  River  (in  Nebraska). 

California  and  Oregon 

Southern  Pacific  (Southern  Division) 

Burlington  and  Missouri  River  (in  Iowa) 

Minnesota  Central 

Southern  Minnesota  

McGregor  and  Missouri  River 

Hastings  and  Dakota 


470 
143 
190 
291 
934 
279 
110 
167 
150 
75 


Estimated 

number  of 

acres  granted. 


3.005,870 

800,000 

2,441,600 

3,724,800 

'  948,643 
3,462,403 


136 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

TABLE  No,  1— Continued. 


11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 
47 

48 
49 
50 
51 

52 
53 
54 
55 

56 

57 
58 


Names  of  Railroads  for  which  Grants  were  Made. 


Chicago  and  Northwestern 

Cedar  Rapids  and  Missouri  River 

Winona  and  Saint  Peter  (Saint  Peter  to  Watertown). . 

Saint  Paul  and  Sioux  City 

Sioux  City  and  Saint  Paul 

West  Wisconsin 

North  Wisconsin . . .. 

Mississippi  and  Missouri  River 

Hannibal  and  Saint  Joseph 

Illinois  Central 

Dubuque  and  Sioux  City 

Iowa  Falls  and  Sioux  City 

Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 

Memphis  and  Little  Rock 

Cairo  and  Fulton 

Southwest  Branch  of  Pacific  of  Missouri 

Saint  Louis,  Iron  Mountain  and  Southern 

Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas 

Oregon  and  California 

Oregon  Central 

Southwest  Branch  of  Pacific  of  Missouri 

Atlantic  and  Pacific 

Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  River 

Stillwater  and  Saint  Paul 

Saint  Paul  and  Pacific 

Southern  Pacific  (Northern  Division) 

Southern  Pacific  (Southern  Division) 

North  Louisiana  and  Texas 

Denver  Pacific , 

Saint  Joseph  and  Denver  City 

Portage,  Winnebago  and  Lake  Superior 

Florida  Transit  Railroad  Company 

Florida  Central  and  Western  Railway  Company 

Louisville  and  Nashville  Railway  Company 

do  do  do  

Mobile  and  Girard  Railway  Company 

East  Tennessee,  Virginia  and  Georgia  Railway  Com 
pany 

Alabama  and  Great  Southern  Railway  Company 

Vicksburg  and  Meridian  Railway  Company 

Mobile  and  Ohio  Railway  Coinpany 

Morgan's  Louisiana  and  Texas  Railroad  and  Steam- 
ship Company \ 

Vicksburg,  Shreveport  and  Pacific  Railway  Company 

Saint  Joseph  and  Western  Railway  Company 

South  and  North  Alabama  Railroad  Company 

Chicago,  Milwaukee  and   Saint  Paul,  La  Crosse  to 
Airlie 

Flint  and  Pere  Marquette  Railway  Company 

Grand  Rapids  and  Indiana  Railway  Company 

Marquette*  Houghton  and  Ontonagon  Railway  Com 
pany 

Totals 


Number  of 

miles 

covered 

by  grants. 


271 


121 
122 
177 
42 
317 
206 
710 
142 
183 
165 
133 

*37 

514 

183 

200 

47 

37 

203 

156 

13 

387 

934 

870 
106 
227 
256 
155 
155 

45 
112 

85 

156 

270 

95 

472 


76 
226 
183 

302 
168 
333 

73 


Estimated 

number  of 

acres  granted. 


13,071 


1,298,730 

1,852,989 

1,199,849 

551,148 

999,983 

1,408,452 

1,261,181 

781,944 

2,595,053 

1,226,163 

1,009.296 
804,185 

1,161,235 

4,106,647 

1,520,000' 

3,840,000 

100,000 


920,000 

4,723,638 

11,964,160 

610,880 

1.100,000 

1,700,000 

1,800,000 

1,171,200 

1.405,440 

168,960 

433,920 

858,624 

641,285 
944,640 
368,640 

1,286,784 

967,840 

725,760 
1,700,000 

702,720 

1,787,953 
586,828 
921,280 

755.200 


85,073,773 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF    MONOPOLIES. 


187 


TABLE   No.    2. 

Grants  of  Land  made  by  the  United  States  to  aid  in  tJie  Construction  of  certain 

Railroads. 


Names  of  Corporations. 

Number 

of  miles 

covered  by 

grants. 

Estimated 

number  of 

acres  granted. 

1 

Kansas  Pacific 

638 

737 

123 

133 

101 

038 

1,317 

2,870 

1,755 

6  000  000 

ft 

Central  Pacific 

7,997,600 
1,100,000 

3 

Western  Pacific 

4 

Central  Branch  of  the  Union  Pacific 

804,185 

5 

Sioux  City  Pacific 

41,398 

6 

Union  Pacific 

12,000,000 
48,215,040 

7 

Northern   Pacific 

8 

Texas   Pacific 

14,000,000 

9 

Atlantic  and  Pacific 

49,244,803 

Total 

7,712 

'   139,403,026 

The  Union  Pacific  Charter. 

On  the  first  of  July,  1862  (U.  S.  Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  12,  page  489),  the  Union 
Pacific  R.  R  Co.  was  incorporated.  The  charter  was  from  the  100th  degree  of 
west  longitude  to  the  western  boundary  of  Nevada.  In  the  first  section  of  the 
charter  is  the  following  clause  : 

he  Capital  stock  of  said  company  shall  consist  of  one  hundred  thousand 
shares  of  one  thousand  dollars  each,  which  shall  be  subscribed  for  and  held  in 
not  more  than  two  hundred  shares  by  any  one  person." 

Section  3  grants  ten  sections  of  land  per  mile  ;  all  lands  not  sold  or  disposed  of 
in  three  years  after  the  completion  of  the  road  to  be  subject  to  entry  and  pre-emp- 
tion at  $1  25  per  acre,  to  be  paid  to  the  company. 

Section  5  gives  $16,000  United  States  bonds  per  mile. 

Section  9  charters  the  Leavenworth,  Pawnee  and  Western  (now  Kansas 
Pacific)  road,  to  commence  at  the  junction  of  the  Kansas  river  with  the  Missouri 
river,  and  unite  with  the  main  line  at  the  100th  meridian  and  giving  it  the  same 
subsidies.  It  also  confers  the  same  privileges  upon  the  Central  Pacific,  a  corpora- 
tion chartered  by  the  State  of  California. 

Section  10  authorizes  this  company  to  continue  eastward  from  the  eastern 
boundary  line  of  California  until  it  meets  the  Union  Pacific. 

Section  11  trebles  the  amount  of  aid  for  the  mountainous  district. 

The  clause  restricting  any  one  owner  to  not  more  than  two  hundred  shares  was 
repealed  in  1864.  A  first  mortgage  to  the  amount  of  the  Government  loan  was 
sanctioned.  The  Sioux  City  and  Burlington  and  Missouri  river  were  chartered' 
with  the  same  privileges  granted  by  the  original  and  the  amended  charter.  One  of 
these  roads  is  now  part  of  the  Union  Pacific. 

July  15,  1866  (vol.  14-94)  the  Placerviile  and  Sacramento  Yalley  road  was 
chartered  and  given  ten  sections  per  mile.  July  25  (vol.  14,  239)  the  California 
and  Oregon  and  Oregon  Central  were  chartered  and  given  a  subsidy.  Both  of 
these  roads  are  now  part  of  the  Central  Pacific. 

July  27,  1866  (vol.  14,  292)  a  new  and  much  broader  charter  was  given  to  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific,  giving  twenty  sections  in  the  States  and  forty  in  the  Terri- 
tories, with  many  privileges  as  to  branches.     By  section  18  of  the  same  act  the 


188  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

Southern  Pacific  was  chartered  with  the  same  rights  given  to  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific. 

March  2  (vol.  14,  548),  the  Stockton  and  Copperopolis  road  was  started  with 
a  land  grant.     It  is  now  a  part  of  the  Central  Pacific. 

July  3,  1869  (vol.  15,  324),  the  Denver  Pacific  was  authorized  to  take  part  of 
the  grant  formerly  given  to  the  Leavenworth,  Pawnee  and  Western. 

May  4,  1870  (vol.  16,  94),  the  Oregon  Central  was  chartered  and  given  twenty 
sections  of  land  to  the  mile.  This  land  could  not  be  sold  at  more  than  $2.50  per 
acre,  and  only  to  actual  settlers,  in  sums  of  not  more  than  160  acres.  This  road  is 
now  part  of  the  Central  Pacific. 

March  3,  1871  (vol.  16,  573),  the  Texas  Pacific  was  chartered  and  given  forty 
sections  per  mile. 

The  next  big  corporation  was  the 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  chartered  July  2,  '64  (U.  S. 
Stat,  at  Larga,  vol.  13,  365).  It  was  to  receive  twenty  sections  of  land  per  mile  in 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  and  double  that  amount  in  the  Territories  and  Oregon. 
The  road  was  to  be  completed  July  4,  1876,  twelve  years  from  the  date  of  the 
granting  act.  May  7,  1866  (U.  S.  Stat,  at  Large,  vol.  14,  355),  a  joint  resolution 
extended  the  time  for  commencing  and  completing  the  road  two  years.  This  made 
the  date  for  its  completion  July  4,  1878.  July  1,  1868  (U.  S.  Stat,  at  Large,  vol. 
15,  255),  the  time  was  extended  for  commencing  the  road  two  years,  and  it  was 
required  to  be  completed  July  4,  1877. 

The  amount  of  this  grant  is  48,215,000  acres.  Even  under  the  decision  of  Sec- 
retary Schurz  the  road  forfeited  its  legal  rights  by  non-compliance  with  its  con- 
tract, on  July  4,  1879,  at  which  time  it  had  only  531  miles  of  its  lines  completed, 
and  was  entitled  to  5,632,000  acres  of  land. 

Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad    Company. 

The  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  or  thirty-fifth  parallel  route  is  next  to  be  examined. 
The  original  charter  and  grant  to  this  road  was  made  July  27,  1866,  and  the  bill, 
with  the  exception  of  the  designated  route,  is  a  copy  of  the  one  making  the  grant 
to  the  Northern  Pacific.  Sections  8  and  9  in  this  act  are  precisely  similar  to  the 
same  sections  in  the  Northern  Pacific  act,  except  that  in  the  8th  section  the  time 
fixed  for  the  completion  of  the  road  is  set  on  July  fourth,  1878,  and  the  word 
"  conditional  "  is  used  in  the  9th  section  in  place  of  the  word  "  conditioned."  The 
land  grant  is  the  same — forty  sections  in  the  Territories  and  twenty  sections  in  the 
States,  per  mile — the  whole  grant  amounting  to  forty  million  six  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand  five  hundred  acres,  or  sixty-three  thousand  five  hundred  and  eighty  square 
miles.  Of  this  amount,  thirteen  millions  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  five 
hundred  acres  are  situated  in  the  Indian  Territory,  through  which  the  main  line 
and  a  branch  from  the  Canadian  river  to  the  Arkansas  State  Line  pass  for  a  distance 
of  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

Texas  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

The  act  can  be  found  in  the  16th  vol.  U.  S.  Statues  at  Large,  573-579.  Ap- 
proved March  3,  1871.  This  was  a  grant  of  land  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  of 
forty  sections  per  mile,  and  a  grant  of  twenty  sections  per  mile  in  California.  By 
section  22  of  that  act,  a  grant  of  twenty  sections  per  mile  was  made  to  the  New 
Orleans,  Baton  Rouge  &  Vicksburg  R.  R.  Co.,  known  as  the  "Backbone,"  so  as 
to  give  connection  to  New  Orleans,  La.     The  time  for  the  completion  of  the  Back- 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 


189 


bone  was  five  years,  and  expired  March  3,  1876.  The  Texas  Pacific  proper 
had  ten  years,  or  till  1881,  but  ,by  an  amendment  May  2,  1872,  it  was  extended 
to  May  2,  1882. 

Lands  Earned  ar\d  Lands  Forfeited. 

"We  have  now  given  a  history  of  how  the  grants  were  made,  and  will  next  show 
by  a  tabulated  statement  the  number  of  miles  of  railroad  built,  the  number  of 
acres  of  land  conditionally  granted,  the  number  of  miles  earned  by  completion  of 
of  the  roads  within  the  time  required  by  law,  and  the  number  of  acres  forfeited 
even  under  a  liberal  and  equitable  construction  of  the  granting  acts,  and  then  will 
give  such  extracts  from  the  granting  acts  as  will  place  before  the  eye  at  once  the 
whole  legal  question  to  be  determined. 

Table  jSTo.  1. 


Name  of  Corporation. 

•a 

CD 

c 

CD 
<sS 

Pi 

a 

c3 

Hi 

d 

o 

1 

O 

a 
a 

Hi 

d 

e 

m 

OS 

Land  Forfeited. 

Miles    of    Railway 
called  for  by  char- 
ter. 

Miles    of     Railway 
built  within  time 
required  by  chaiv 
ter. 

54-1 
O 

CD 

a 

< 

Union  Pacific 

1,859,475 
841,780 

188,762 

none 

41,318 

2,374.090 
1,037,910 

95,495 
1,133.790 

7,190,525 
5,159,520 

76.238 

800,006 

3,672 

67,000 
4,223,090 

2,405,505 
5,366,410 

1,042 
676 

100 
106 
107 

190 

1,150 

863. 

1,042 
676 

100 
1C6 
107 

190 
1,150 

883 

$4  14 

Kansas  Pacific 

Central      Branch      Union 
Pacific.           

Denver  Pacific        

Sionx  City  and  Pacific 

Burlington    and    Missouri 
River.   ...              

4  30 

Branch       Line      Southern 
Pacific.             

Central  Pacific.          

7  41 

7,572,620 

25,291,660 

4,254 

4,254 

Table  No.  2. 


5  «3 

^2  A 

?  3  a 

o 

£h1 

&&& 

55  O 

so 

CD 

d 

S3 

d 

0J 

3  ~  >? 

CD 

J'd 

Name  of  Corporation. 

S3 

1 

CD 

o 

s-l 

3*1 

^o 
v™ 

HH 

o 

H 

fr 

S'3 

uti 

•& 

>3 

Ti 

T3 

aj^  ,■ 

g  'S    =^  h 

^3 

Pi 

03 

Q 

0 
03 

SSS 

=  £££ 

CD   ^ 

^ 

h1 

Hi 

h! 

S 

3 

<! 

*Oregon  Branch  Central  j 
Pacific J 

2,125,314 

7,000 

1,064,000 

1,062,526 

288 

152 

$7  41 

Oregon  and  California 

322,062 

3,379,698 

2,304,900 

1,074,798 

315 

197 

7  41 

Oregon  Central 

none 

1,130,880 

380,000 

750,880 

144 

47 

7  41 

Texas  Pacific 

none 

14,309,760 

none 

14,309,760 

678 

none 

JNew  Orleans  Pacific 

none 

1,492,000 

none 

1,492,000 

318 

none 

tNorthern  Pacific 

749,525 

47,476,115 

10,726,400 

37,490,240 

2,270 

J  31 

5  66 

Atlantic  and  Pacific 

526,990 

40,163,510 

2,070,800 

38,619,700 

2,426 



6,439 

125 

3,723,891 

107,949,963 

16,546,100 

94,799,^04 

1,052 

*Has  1,031,314  acres  of  land  patented  more  than  it  is  entitled  to.    t  Has  sold  several  million 
acres  of  land.    J  Assignee  of  the  New  Orleans,  Baton  Rouge  &  Vicksburg  R.  R. 


190 


THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 


Table  No.  1  shows  the  completed  roads,  that  is,  the  roads  that  were  built 
within  the  specified  time  designated  by  their  charters. 

Table  No.  2  shows  the  roads  that  defaulted. 

The  Union  Pacific  controls  the  Kansas  Pacific,  Central  Branch  Union  Pacific, 
Denver  Pacific,  and  Sioux  City  &  Pacific,  which  were  land  grant  roads,  besides 
several  other  branches  which  were  not  land  grant  roads. 

It  will  be  seen  that  these  corporations  have  received  7,572,620  acres  of  land, 
and  are  claiming  and  are  entitled  to  25,291,660  acres,  making  a  total  of  32,864,280 
acres.  They  have  built  4,264  miles  of  railroad,  so  that  for  each  mile  of  railroad 
built  they  have  been  given  7,780  acres  of  land;  whilst  the  States  only  secured 
3,290  acres  for  each  mile  built — just  half  the  amount  given  to  the  corporations. 
To  place  it  in  another  form,  the  States  have  been  given  35,958,775  acres  of  land, 
and  for  this  have  built  10,928  miles  of  road  ;  whilst  these  corporations  have  been 
given  32,864,280  acres  of  land,  more  than  the  States  received,  and  for  it  they  have 
return  eel  us  but  little  more  than  a  third  of  the  number  of  miles  of  railway. 

Moneys   Given. 

Besides  this  land  these  roads  have  received  an  immense  subsidy  in  money  from 
the  Government,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  statement  from  the  official 
records  : 

To  the  Union  Pacific  and  its  branches,  the  Kansas  Pacific,  the  Sioux  City  & 
Pacific,  and  the  Central  Branch  Union  Pacific,  Government  bonds  were  issued  to 
the  amount  of  $36,767,832,  and  the  Government  has  paid  interest  on  this  to  the 
amount  of  $31,895,228,  of  which  sum  the  road  has  repaid  by  transporting  mails- 
troops,  etc.,  $11,398,913,  leaving  due  July  1,  1882,  on  interest  paid,  $20,469,304. 

To  the  Central  Pacific  (including  the  Western  Pacific)  there  was  loaned  $27,- 
855,680  in  bonds.  The  interest  paid  on  these  by  the  Government  amounts  to 
$23,449,463;  the  corporatioh  has  repaid  $3,821,779,  leaving  interest  due  July  1, 
1882,  $19,627,684. 

To  show  this  matter  in  detail,  the  following  table  from  the  report  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  under  date  of  Dec.  3,  1883,  will  be  found  valuable  : 

Table  N. — Statement  of  %0-year  6  per  cent,  bonds  (interest  payable  January  and 
July)  issued  to  the  several  Pacific  Railway  Companies  under  the  acts  of  July 
1,  1862  (12  Statutes,  492),  and  July  2,  1864  (13  Statutes,  359). 


Railway  Companies. 


On  January  1,  1876  : 

Central  Pacific 

Kansas  Pacific 

Union  Pacific 

Central  Branch  Union  Pacific 

Western  Pacific 

Sioux  City  and  Pacific 


Amount  of 

Bonds 
Outstanding. 


$25,885,120  00 
6,303,000  00 
27,236,512  00 
1,600,000  00 
1,970,560  60 
1,628,320  00 


$64,623,512  00 


Amount  of  In- 
terest Accrued 
and  paid  to  date 
as  per  preced- 
ing Statement. 


$13,027,697  67 

3,103,8£3  09 

11,884,324  65 

781,808  26 

722,380  14 

682,703  89 


$28,202,807  70 


Amount  of 

Interest  Due  as 

per  Kegister's 

Schedule. 


$776,553  60 

189,090  00 

817,U95  36 

48,000  00 

59,116  80 

48,849  60 


$1,938,705  36 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 


191 


Railway  Companies. 


Total  Interest 

paid  by  tbe 
United  States. 


On  January  1, 1876  : 

Central  Pacific 

Kansas  Pacific 

Union  Pacific 

Central  Branch  Union  Pacific 

Western  Pacific 

Sioux  City  and  Pacific 


$11,804,251  27 

3,292,983  09 

12,701,420  01 

829,808  26 

781,496  94 

731,553  49 


),141,513  06 


Repayment  of 
Interest  by 

Transportation 

of  Mails, 

Troops,  etc. 


M, 191, 765  86 

1,440,664  84 

3,943,715  65 

44,408  05 

9,367  00 

39,005  96 


5,668,927  36 


Balance  due 
the  United 
States  on  inter- 
est Account, 
Deducting 
Repayments. 


510,612,485  41 

1,852,318  25 

8,757,704  36 

785,400  21 

772,129  94 

692,547  53 


$,472,585  70 


The  above  table  shows  the  amount  due  January  1,  1876 — from  the  six  roads 
(really  but  two,  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  having  swallowed  the  others).  This 
amount  has  steadily  swelled  as  follows,  there  being  due  the  Government 

July  1,  1876 $25,227,727  17 

Jan.  1,  1877 27,014,416  32 

July  1,  1877 27,443,139  25 

Jan.  1,  1878 28,890,144  88 

July  1,  1878 29,953,595  61 

Jan.  1,  1879 31,202,642  51 

July  1,  1879 31,116,907  19 

Jan.  1,  1880 32,130,681  75 

July  1,  1880 , 33,974,568  75 

Jan.  1,  1881 : 35,476,119  18 

July  1,  1881 37,041,145  67 

Jan.  1,  1882 38,698,091  04 

July  1,  1882 40,123,989  44 

Jan.  1,  1883 41,159,527  51 

and  on  July  1,  1883,  the  following  table  shows  the  amount  due  from  these  roads 
to  be  of  $42,444,713.26: 


Railway  Comp antes. 


Amounts  of  • 
Bonds  Outstand- 
ing. 


On  July  1,  1883  : 

Central  Pacific 

Kansas  Pacific 

Union  Pacific 

Central  Branch  Union  Pacific 

Western  Pacific 

Sioux  City  and  Pacific 


$25,885,120  00 
6,303,000  00 
27,236,512  00 
1,600,000  00 
1,970,560  00 
1,628,320  00 


$64,623,512  00 


Amount  of  In- 
terest Accrued 

and  paid  to  date, 
as  per  preced- 
ing Statement. 


$22,676,001  67 
5,940,243  09 
24,140,755  05 
1,501,808  26 
1,609,132  14 
1,415,447  89 


$57,283,388  10 


Amount  of  In- 
terest Due  as 
per  Register's 
Schedule. 


$776,553  60 

189,090  00 

817,095  36 

48,000  00 

59,116  80 

48,849  60 


$1,938,705  36 


192 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 


Railway  Companies. 


On  July  1,  1883  : 

Central  Pacific 

Kansas  Pacific 

Union  Pacific 

Central  Branch  Union  Pacific 

Western  Pacific 

Sioux  City  and  Pacific 


Total  Interest 

paid  by  the 
United  States. 


£23,452,555  27 
6,129,333  09 

21,957,850  41 
1,549,808  26 
1,688,248  94 
1,464,297  49 


$59,222,093  46 


Repayment  of 

Interest  by 

Transportation 

of  Mails,  Troops, 

etc. 


#4,592,158  25 

2,969,049  59 

8,933,292  87 

152,157  10 

9,367  00 

121,355  39 


3,777,380  20 


Balance  due 
the  United 

States  on  Inter- 
est Account, 

Deducting  Re- 
payments. 


$18,860,397  02 
3,160,283  50 
16,024,557  54 
1,397,651  16 
1,658,881  94 
1,342,942  10 


},444,713  25 


State  Grants  and  Grants  to  Corporations. 

Where  I\ests  the  Responsibility  for  these  Grants  ? 

All  of  the  grants  of  lands  and  moneys  in  these  large  quantities  were  made  from 
the  passage  of  the  Union  Pacific  Charter,  July  1,  1862,  to  the  closing  scene  on  the 
passage  of  the  Texas  Pacific  bill,  March  3,  1871,  while  the  Republican  party  was 
in  control  of  both  houses  of  Congress  and  the  Executive  departments.  Of  the 
various  grants  made  within  that  period,  the  bonds  lent  by  the  Government  amount 
to  $64,623,512  to  the  following  roads  : 

Central  Pacific,  Kansas  Pacific,  Union  Pacific,  Central  Branch 
Union  Pacific,  Western  Pacific,  Sioux  City  and  Pacific. 

The  lands  given  to  the  roads  that  were  completed  in  time  to  earn  their  lands  is 
shown  by  the  following  table,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  roads  just  mentioned 
receive  land  in  addition  to  bonds. 


Name  of  Corporation. 


Union  Pacific 

Kansas  Pacific 

Central  Branch  Union  Pacific . . 

Denver  Pacific. 

Sioux  City  and  Pacific 

Burlington  and  Missouri  River 

Southern  Pacific 

Branch  Line  Southern  Pacific. . 
Central  Pacific. 


Land  Patented. 

"3 

o 

s 

a 

a 

03 

1  Land  Forfeited. 

Miles     of     Railway 
called     for      by 
charter. 

1,859,475 

841,780 

188,762 

none 

41,318 

2,374,090 

1,037,910 

95,495 

1,133,790 

7,190,525 

5,159,220 

76,238 

800,000 

3,672 

67,000 

4,223,090 

2,405,505 

5,366,410 

25,291,660 

1,042 
676 
100 
106 
107 
190 

1,150 

'  883 

7,572,620 

4,254 

5  S  =8 


O   .fcj 

jib' 


1,042 
676 
100 
103 
107 
190 

1,150 

"883 
4,254 


It  will  be  observed  that  while  these  roads  have  earned  32,864,280  acres  of  land, 
they  have  taken  patents  for  but  7,572,620  acres.  Their  reason  for  this  course  arises 
from  the  fact  that  until  they  take  out  patents  the  title  is  in  the  government,  hence 
the  roads  escape  taxation.  The  grants  of  lands  to  other  roads  will  now  be  noticed, 
and  the  roads  aggregate  an  immense  area. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  193 

The  acts  making  the  grants  can  be  found  as  follows  :  Northern  Pacific  railroad 
(x\ct  July  2,  1864,  U.  S.  statutes  vol.  13,  page  363,  time  lor  completion  July  4, 
1877,  but  extended  to  July  4,  1879).  Acres  of  land,  46,947,200.  California 
and  Oregon  Railroad  Co.  (Act  July  25,  1866,  14th  vol.  U.  S.  statutes  page  239), 
acres  of  land  3,686,400.  Oregon  and  California  Railroad  Co.  (Act  July  25,  1866, 
vol.  14  U.  S.  statutes,  page  239),  acres  of  land  4,608,000. 

Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  Co.  (Act  July  27,  1866,  U.  S.  statutes,  vol.  14, 
page  292),  time  for  completion  July  4,  1878.  Acres  of  land  granted  40,690,560. 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Co.  (Act  July  27,  1866,  U.  S.  statutes,  vol.  14,  page  292), 
time  for  completion  July  4,  1878.     Acres  of  land  granted  1,130,880. 

Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Co.  (Act  March  3,  1871,  U.  S.  statutes,  vol.  16,  page  573), 
time  for  completion  May  2,  1882.     Acres  of  land  14,309,760. 

New  Orleans  Pacific,  assignee  of  the  New  Orleans,  Baton  Rouge  and  Yicksburg 
Railroad  Co.  (22d  section,  act  March  3,  1871,  vol.  16,  page  573),  time  for  completion 
March  3,  1876.  Acres  of  land  granted  4,070,400.  (Note  :  this  was  the  amount 
voted  by  the  bill,  viz.  :  20  sections  per  mile  for  318  miles.  But  it  is  estimated  that 
there  is  not  more  than  1,492,000  acres  of  land  available.)  This  closes  the  grants  of 
money  and  lands.  The  lands  to  the  completed  roads  are  32,864,280  acres.  This 
amount  is  gone  forever  from  the  people.  The  lands  granted  to  roads  that  did  not 
comply  amount  to  111,673,854  acres  or  174,490  square  miles. 

This  is  more  land  than  is  contained  in  the  the  States  of  New  York,  New  Jersey , 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana.  The  acts  making  the  grants  of  money  and 
lands,  are  shown  to  have  been  passed  between  July  1,  1862,  and  March  3, 
1871.  The  Republican  party,  the  true  party  of  monopoly,  had  control  of  both 
Houses  of  Congress  by  from  a  two-thirds  (|)  to  three-fourths  (|)  majority.  So  that 
there  is  no  possible  chance  for  the  responsibility  to  be  shifted.  But  that  party's 
responsibility  does  not  stop  here.  The  time  fixed  for  the  completion  of  the  roads 
TDegan  to  expire  in  1876,  and  the  last  one  expired  May  2,  1882.  If  the  executive 
offices  had  been  filled  by  men  who  were  honestly  in  favor  of  doing  that  which  is  only 
honest,  they  would  have  closed  the  doors  of  the  department  to  roads,  as  their  time  for 
completion  expired  and  exacted  a  strict  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the  grant.  "We 
find  that  this  subject  has  three  distinct  eras.  The  first  era  runs  from  July  1,  1862, 
to  March  3,  1871,  and  this  era  is  the  granting  era.  The  second  era  is  from  1876  to 
1882,  the  era  in  which  those  grants  expired  by  limitation.  The  third  era  begins  July 
30,  1882,  when  the  Hon.  Thomas  R.  Cobb,  of  Indiana,  introduced  House  Bill 
No.  3606,  for  the  forfeiting  of  all  unearned  land  grants  (47th  Cong.,  1st  session), 
and  brings  us  down  to  the  present  time.  The  House  of  the  Forty-seventh  Congress 
was  Republican,  and  the  action  of  that  body  shows  that  the  Republican  party  had 
not  changed  from  the  friends  of  monopoly  to  the  friends  of  the  people.  Mr. 
Cobb's  bill  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  the  record  shows  that  on 
May  16,  1882,  Mr.  Taylor  from  that  committee  made  report  No.  1266,  confirm- 
ing the  title  of  settlers  on  disputed  lands  on  what  is  known  as  the  "  Ontonagon 
Grant,"  and  the  bill  calmly  died  on  the  calendar.  On  Monday,  July  24,  1882, 
the  minority  of  the  Judiciary  submitted  their  report,  and  with  it  a  resolution  to 
forfeit  the  Northern  Pacific  unearned  land  grant.  They  asked  that  the  matter  be 
placed  on  the  calendar.  Mr.  Caswell,  of  Wisconsin  (Rep.)  objected,  and  the 
Speaker,  J.  Warren  Keifer,  sustained  him.  Mr.  Cox,  of  New  York  (Dem.), 
appealed  from  the  decision  of  the  chair.  Mr.  Reed  (Rep.),  of  Maine,  moved  to 
lay  Cox's  motion  on  the  table.  A  newspaper  dispatch  of  that  date  shows  this  up 
in  a  true  light.     In  speaking  of  this  report,  it  said  : 

"The  majority  of  the  committee  (8)  reported  in  the  interest  of  the  railroad 

13 


194  THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 

company  that  no  action  was  necessary,  and  when  the  minority  of  the  committee  (?) 
submitted  their  report,  and  asked  that  the  subject  be  placed  on  the  calendar  for 
discussion,  Speaker  Keifer  ruled  the  motion  out  of  order  on  the  ground  that  the 
majority  of  the  committee  having  reported  that  no  action  was  necessary  the  ques- 
tion could  not  be  discussed  on  the  report  of  a  minority.  Mr.  Cox,  of  New  York, 
appealed  from  this  remarkable  decision  of  the  chair,  when  Mr.  Reed,  of  Maine, 
moved  to  lay  the  appeal  on  the  table,  which  was  carried  by  the  following  vote  : 
Yeas,  97;  nays,  70.  JSTot  voting,  123.  Mr.  Caswell  (Rep.),  of  Wisconsin,  tried  to 
prevent  this  vote  from  going  on  record." 

That  action  showed  the  animus  of  the  Republican  leaders.  We  now  come  to  a 
report  that  is  unique  in  its  character.  We  allude  to  the  action  of  the  chairman  of 
the  Committee  of  Judiciary,  Thos.  B.  Reed,  of  Maine,  then  as  now  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party.  The  Republican  railroad  members  of  that  com- 
mittee, rather  than  have  the  manner  in  which  the  Texas  Pacific  bill  was  bought 
through  Congress  in  1870  and  1871  exposed,  voted  almost  unanimously  to  forfeit 
the  grant  on  August  3,  1882.  When  the  committee  was  called  that  day  the 
record  shows  the  following  proceedings  (Congressional  Record,  Aug.  3d,  1882) : 

Texas  Pacific  Fyailroad. 

The  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  being  called  : 

Mr.  Reed — I  desire  to  present  a  report  from  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary 
in  regard  to  the  Texas  Pacific  railroad.  I  have  not  the  document  with  me  at  this 
moment ;  it  is  being  copied,  and  if  the  House  has  no  objection  I  will  file  it  as  soon 
as  it  is  ready. 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore  (Mr.  Hubbell) — If  there  be  no  objection,  the  gen- 
tleman will  be  allowed  to  file  the  report  when  copied.  The  Chair  hears  no  objec- 
tion.    What  order  does  the  gentleman  ask  ? 

Mr.  Knott — On  behalf  of  several  members  of  the  committee  I  desire  to  submit 
in  connection  with  this  report  some  individual  views  to  be  printed  with  it. 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — If  there  be  no  objection,  the  views  of  the  minority 
will  be  presented,  to  be  printed  with  the  report  of  the  Committee. 

There  was  no  objection. 

Mr.  Holman — Let  the  resolution  accompanying  the  report  be  read. 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — The  gentleman  from  Maine  (Mr.  Reed)  states  that 
the  report  is  being  copied  and  will  be  presented  hereafter. 

Mr.  Holman — But  the  resolution,  I  presume,  is  here  ? 

Mr.  Reed — The  resolution  also  is  being  copied.  It  could  not  at  any  rate  be 
read  under  the  present  order. 

Mr.  Holman — Then  it  cannot  be  received. 

A  Member— Let  it  be  printed. 

Mr.  Reed—  Certainly  ;  it  will  be  printed  as  a  part  of  the  report. 

Mr.  Randall — My  neighbor  suggests  to  me  to  ask  that  the  report  be  pre- 
sented hereafter,  and  that  the  House  give  consent  to  the  consideration  of  the; 
resolution. 

Mr.  Reed — That  cannot  be  done  under  this  rule.  This  is  a  presentation  of  the 
report  in  ordinary  form  under  the  rule.  All  I  ask  is  that  I  may  make  manual 
transmission  of  the  report  hereafter. 

Mr.  Randall — I  suggest  that  the  gentleman  be  allowed  to  call  it  up  for  consid- 
eration to-morrow. 

Mr.  Reed — That  cannot  be  done.  That  is  not  proper,  because  the  report  has 
not  been  printed. 


THE  OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES.  195 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — The  Chair  cannot  entertain  that  request  during  this 
hour. 

Mr.  Randall — Unanimous  consent  can  be  asked. 

Mr.  Reed — Unanimous  consent  has  never  been  asked  in  this  hour. 

Mr.  Ellis — I  object,  until  I  know  what  it  is. 

Mr.  Randall — It  is  the  forfeiture  of  14,000,000  acres  of  land,  granted  to  the 
Texas  Pacific  Railroad,  quasi  Pennsylvania  corporation. 

Mr.  Holman— Nearly  18,000,000. 

Mr.  Townshend,  of  Illinois — What  has  become  of  the  resolution  reported  by 
the  gentleman  from  Maine  ? 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — The  gentleman  informed  the  Chair  that  the  report 
and  resolution  were  being  copied,  and  asked  unanimous  consent  to  file  the  same 
as  soon  as  copied. 

Mr.  Townshend,  of  Illinois — And  that  the  resolution  go  on  the  calendar  ? 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — That  was  the  understanding. 

Mr.  Reed — That  will  be  done  under  the  rule.  I  have  stated  that  I  merely  wish 
to  make  manual  transmission  of  this  report  hereafter  instead  of  now. 

Mr  Townshend,  of  Illinois — That  is  right,  of  course.  I  only  wished  to  under- 
stand the  status  of  the  resolution.     I  understand  it  will  go  to  the  calendar. 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — The  resolution  will  take  the  same  course  as  though 
it  were  presented  now. 

Mr.  Cox.  of  New  York — When  will  it  come  up  for  consideration  ?  We  want 
to  consider  it. 

The  Speaker  pro  tempore — The  report  will  come  up  in  its  order. 

Mr.  Townshend,  of  Illinois — It  can  be  called  up  at  any  time  by  unanimous 
consent. 

Mr.  Cox,  of  New  York — We  ask  unanimous  consent  to  take  it  up  to-morrow. 

Mr.  Reed — The  gentleman  from  Louisiana  [Mr.  Ellis]  has  objected. 

This  took  place  August  3d,  and  yet  when  Congress  adjourned  on  August  8th 
a  printed  copy  of  neither  the  resolution  nor  report  could  be  found  ;  nay,  more, 
"there  never  was  a  printed  copy  found  in  the  document  room  of  the  House,  until 
after  James  A.  George,  on  the  night  of  September  6,  made  a  speech  in  Congress 
Hall,  Portland,  Maine,  the  home  of  Mr.  Reed,  and  charged  publicly  that  Mr. 
Reed  had  pocketed  the  report.  Yet  in  the  face  of  this,  we  find  that  on  January 
31,  1884,  when  the  bill  was  up  in  the  House  to  forfeit  the  Texas  Pacific  land  grant, 
Mr.  Reed  had  the  assurance  to  ask  to  have  printed  in  the  Record  the  report  which 
the  Judiciary  Committee  agreed  to  August  3,  1882,  but  not  submitted  for  some 
time  afterward.  In  the  record  of  January  31,  1884,  page  844,  the  following,  on 
motion  of  Mr.  Reed,  was  printed  : 

"  Mr.  Reed  (August  3,  1882),  from  the  Judiciary,  submitted  the  following  re- 
port :  " 

Any  one  not  knowing  the  true  facts  of  the  case,  might  think  Reed  submitted  a 
report  August  3,  1882,  but  the  record  of  that  day's  proceedings  shows  this  to  be 
false,  and  Mr.  Reed  cannot  escape  in  this  manner.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state 
that  the  lobby  were  here  in  full  force  and  hovered  around  the  committee  like 
buzzards  around  a  carcass.  That  they  were  successful  is  hardly  necessary  to  state, 
for  the  records  of  the  Forty-seventh  Congress  show  that  no  effort  was  ever  made  to 
take  up  a  bill  inimical  to  the  railroads,  while  two  huge  efforts  were  made  to  pass  a 
bill,  under  cover  of  which  Huntington,  Stanford,  Crocker  &  Co.  could  and  would 
have  stolen  fourteen  millions  of  acres  of  land.  We  allude  to  the  effort  to  pass  a 
bill  to  allow  a  consolidation  of  the  Southern  Pacific  system  from  San  Francisco 
via  El  Paso  and  San  Antonio,  Texas,  to  New  Orleans,  La.     The  bill  alluded  to  is 


v 


196  THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES; 

House  Bill  5219,  which  was  the  substitute  reported  from  Pacific  Railroads  committee 
1:or  House  Bill  2534,  and  the  reports  accompanying  are  Nos.  755  and  1168,  and  was 
put  on  House  calender  May  3,  1882.  House  Report  1168  is  notable  from  the  fact 
that  it  takes  the  ground  that  monopolies  do  not  work  in  the  interests  of  monopoly 
but  of  the  people. 

We  now  come  to  the  interregnum  between  the  outgoing  of  the  Republican 
House  and  the  incoming  of  the  Democratic  House.  The  fight  is  now  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Interior  Department  and  due  credit  must  be  given  to  the  men  who 
threw  themselves  into  the  breach  to  save  the  people's  lands.  During  the  whole 
vacation  of  Congress,  the  Hons.  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  of  California,  and  Poindexter 
Dunn,  of  Arkansas,  were  in  Washington,  and  never  failed  to  interpose  an  objec- 
tion at  the  Interior  Department,  whenever  the  railroads  attempted  to  take  an 
advantage.  Learning  on  June  5, 1883,  that  the  Texas  and  Pacific  were  attempting, 
by  a  pretended  deed  of  transfer,  to  get  14,309,760  acres  of  land,  they,  in  connec- 
tion with  Hon.  T.  R.   Cobb,  who  was  in  the  city  that  day,  filed  the  following 

protest : 

Washington,  D.  C,  June  5,  1883. 

Hon.  H.  M.  Teller,  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

Sir  :  We  are  informed  that  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Companies  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  claiming  as  assignees  of  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  have  filed,  or  contemplate  filing  at  an  early  day,  an  application  for  the 
lands  granted  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company  by  the  act  of  March  3,  1871 
(IT.  S.  Stat,  at  large,  Vol.  16,  page  573),  as  amended  by  the  act  of  May  2,  1872  (IT. 
S.  Stat,  at  large,  Vol.  17,  page  59). 

As  you  are  probably  aware,  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  47th  Congress,  on  the  3d  of  August,  1882,  with  but  one  dissenting 
vote,  declared  these  lands  forfeited.  But  for  the  fact  that  almost  the  entire  time  of 
the  succeeding  session  was  taken  up  in  the  discussion  of  revenue  measures,  there  is 
little  doubt  that  this  resolution  would  have  passed. 

Again  we  would  call  to  your  attention  that  an  effort  was  made  to  consolidate 
these  roads  in  the  last  session  of  Congress,  bills  for  that  purpose  being  introduced 
in  both  houses,  so  that  a  shadow  of  title  might  be  acquired  by  the  Southern  Pacific 
Companies.  The  bill  was  never  called  up  in  the  Senate  and  was  twice  defeated  in 
the  House,  first  on  the  11th  of  January,  and  again  on  the  2d  of  March  of  this  year, 
by  a  most  decided  vote. 

In  consideration  of  these  facts,  and  of  the  probabilities  that  immediately  upon 
the  issuance  of  certificates  for  said  land,  the  same  will  be  mortgaged  for  the  issu- 
ance of  land  bonds,  that  innocent  purchasers  may  be  brought  in,  we  protest  against 
any  action  on  your  part  looking  to  the  issuance  of  certificates  to  said  Southern 
Pacific  Companies,  or  to  any  other  company  claiming  under  the  acts  previously 
alluded  to.  We  also  desire  that  a  certified  copy  of  all  papers, now  in  your  office, 
or  that  may  be  filed  by  any  company  or  persons,  in  relation  to  the  said  lands,  be 
furnished  us.  (Signed)  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  Cal. 

T.  R,  Cobb,  Ind. 
Poindexter  Dunn,  Ark. 

This  action  on  their  part  stopped  all  proceedings,  and  when  Congress  met  the 
House,  by  a  vote  of  260  ayes  to  1  nay,  passed  a  bill  to  forfeit  this  grant.  On  the 
same  day  these  same  gentlemen  filed  a  similar  protest  on  the  "  Blackbone  "  grant. 
We  now  come  to  the  meeting  of  the  48th  Congress  (House  Democratic),  and  we 
will  see  what  they  have  done.  The  committees  were  not  announced  till  just  before 
the  holidays.  Yet  we  find  a  record  of  the  following  prompt  action  on  the  part  of 
the  Public  Lands  committees.    On  January  31,  1884,  Mr.  Cobb,  as  chairman  of  the 


THE   OVERTHROW    OF    MONOPOLIES. 


197 


Public  Lands,  asked  the  House  to  take  up  and  pass  House  bill  3520,  declaring  for- 
feited certain  lands  granted  to  States  in  aid  of  railroads.  The  bill  passed  by  a  viva 
wee  vote,  and  thus  between  five  and  six  million  acres  of  land,  so  far  as  the  House 
of  the  48th  Congress  was  concerned,  were  saved.  But  this  day  was  to  witness  a 
still  greater  triumph,  The  next  bill  taken  up  was  House  bill  3933,  to  declare  a 
forfeiture  of  lands  granted  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad.  The  House,  by  a  vote 
of  260  ayes  to  1  nay,  passed  this  bill,  and  14,309,760  acres  of  land  more  was  saved, 
so  far  as  the  House  of  the  48th  Congress  could  save. 

Estimated  Disposition  of  the  Public  Domain  to  June  30,  1880,  June  30,  1882,  and 

June  30,  1883. 
The  amount  disposed  of  up  to  June  30,  1883,  is  about  620,000,000  acres. 


Cash  sales,  which  include  pre-emption, 
etc.,  and  probably  30,000,000  or  more 
acres  accounted  for  under  other  acts 
and  commutation  of  homesteads,  from 
the  establishment  of  land  system  to 
June  30,  1880 

Donation  acts — Florida,  Oregon,  Wash 
ington,  and  New  Mexico 

Land  Bounties— Military  and  Naval 
service 

State  selections  (Act  1841)  for  internal 
improvement 

Salines  (salt  springs)  granted  to  States . 

Town  sites  and  county  seats 

Railroad  land  grants  patented 

Canal  grants 

Military  wagon-road  grants 

Mineral  lands  sold  since  1866 

Homesteads,  3,000,000  (estimated)  acres 
of  which  have  been  commuted  and 
carried  into  cash  sales 

Scrips  enumerated 

Coal  lands 

Stone  and  timber  acts  of  1878 

Swamp  and  overflowed  lands  selected  and 
patented  to  States 

Graduation  act  of  1854 

Schools.    Seminaries     and     Agricultural 
Colleges  : 
16"    and    36"    sections    for 

schools 67,893,919 

Seminaries  and  universities.     1,165,520 
Agricultural  colleges — Land 

in  place 1,770,000 

Agricultural  colleges— Land 
scrip 7,830,000 


Estimated  Disposition  under  Various 
Laws  to — 


June  30,  1880.  !  June  30,  1882.  \  June  30,  1883. 


Area  held  under  timber-culture  act . 
Desert  land  act 


Acres. 
547,754,483 


169,832,564 

3,084,797 

61,028,430 

7,806,554 

559,965 

148,916 

45,650,026 

4,424,073 

1,301,040 

148,621 


55,667,044 

2,778,622 
10,750 
20,782 

69,206,522 
25,696,419 


Acres. 
572,957,047 


173,000,000 

3,117,401 

61,028,430 

7,806,554 

559,965 

162.794 

46,526,823 

4,424,073 

1,301,040 

194,970 


67,043,189 

2,893,034 

24,560 

159,008 

70,006,769 
25,696,419 


78,659,439      78,659,439 
9,346,660  I    13,657,146 

897,160  !   1,170,675 


Acres. 
591,987,814 


175,000,000 

3,121,534 

61,064,150 

7,806,554 

559,965 

167,871 

47,004,043 

4,424,073 

1,741,897 

224,483 


75215,164 

2,949,113 

40,172 

456,743 

70,445,957 
25,696,419 


78,889,839 

16,768,076 

1,607,310 


198  THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 

The  Action  of  tl\e  Forty-eighth  Congress. 

The  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Forty-eighth  Congress  recognizing  the 
importance  of  declaring  forfeited  unearned  land  grants,  went  promptly  to  work 
under  the  able  and  vigilant  lead  of  Hon.  T.  R.  Cobb,  of  Indiana,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Lands. 

January  21,  1884,  Mr.  Holman  submitted  the  following  resolution,  which  was 
agreed  to  : 

Resolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House  all  the  public  lands  heretofore  granted 
to  States  and  corporations  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  railroads,  so  far  as  the  same  are 
now  subject  to  forfeiture  by  reason  of  the  non-fulfillment  of  the  conditions  on  which  the 
grants  were  made,  ought  to  be  declared  forfeited  to  the  United  States  and  restored  to 
the  public  domain. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  of  the  highest  public  interest  that  the  laws  touching  the  public 
lands  should  be  so  framed  and  administered  as  to  ultimately  secure  freehold  therein  to  the 
greatest  number  of  citizens  ;  and  to  that  end  all  laws  facilitating  speculation  in  the  pub- 
lic lands  or  authorizing  or  permitting  the  entry  or  purchase  thereof  in  large  bodies  ought 
to  be  repealed,  and  all  of  the  public  lands  adapted  to  agriculture  (subject  to  bounty  grants 
and  those  in  aid  of  education)  ought  to  be  reserved  for  the  benefit  of  actual  and  bona  fide 
settlers,  and  disposed  of  under  the  provisions  of  the  homestead  laws  only. 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Public  Lands  is  hereby  instructed  to  report  to  the 
House  bills  to  carry  into  effect  the  views  expressed  in  the  foregoing  resolutions  ;  that 
said  committee  shall  be  authorized  to  report  such  bills  at  any  time,  subject  only  to 
revenue  and  appropriation  bills  ;  and  the  same  shall  in  like  order  be  entitled  to  considera- 
tion. 

History  of  the  Land  Grar\t  Bills. 

H.  R.  3,520.  Declaring  forfeited  certain  grants  of  lands  made  to  certain  States 
to  aid  in  the  construction  of  railroads. 

In  the  House,  passed  January  31,  1884,  without  a  record  vote. 

In  the  Senate,  received  February  4,  reported  from  Committee  on  Public  Lands, 
amendment,  June  30.     No  vote  taken. 

Mr.  Cobb  stated  the  purpose  of  the  bill  in  the  following  words  ; 

Mr.  Cobb — As  I  was  about  saying,  Mr.  Speaker,  none  of  these  roads  have  been  com- 
pleted, none  ot  them  begun.  Their  grants  simply  stand  in  their  name  without  any  work 
whatever  having  been  done  upon  the  roads  which  these  grants  contemplated.  I  do  not 
deem  it  necessary,  therefore,  to  take  up  the  time  of  the  House  in  discussing  in  detail  any 
of  these  grants.  It  is  a  mere  question  of  policy  now  whether  the  grants  shall  be  forfeited 
in  view  of  the  failure  of  the  companies  to  construct  the  roads  or  not. 

Under  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  a  similar  case,  although  all  of  these  grants 
contained  the  condition  that  in  case  the  railroads  are  not  completed  in  ten  years  from 
the  date  of  the  grant  that  at  the  end  of  that  period  the  lands  shall  revert  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  under  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
in  the  case  of  Shulenburg  vs.  Herriman  it  has  been  held  that  these  were  grants  in 
prcesenli  and  carry  the  legal  title  to  the  States  to  which  they  are  made  or  to  the  railroad 
companies.  That  being  so,  the  committee  deemed  it  right  and  proper  that  there  should 
be  a  declaration  upon  the  part  of  the  legislative  department  of  the  Government  creating 
these  grants  declaring  a  forfeiture  and  restoring  the  lands  to  the  public  domain,  reserving, 
as  you  will  perceive  by  the  bill,  the  rights  of  settlers,  homesteaders,  etc.,  made  in  good 
faith.  None  ot  these  lands  in  any  of  these  grants  have  been  sold.  In  the  case  of  the 
State  of  Alabama  I  believe  one  of  these  grants  was  not  accepted  at  all.  As  to  the  other 
grants,  no  corporations  were  organized  for  the  purpose  of  accepting  them.  This  is  about 
the  substance  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  and,  as  I  have  said,  it  seems  scarcely  necessary  to 
detain  the  House  longer.  The  expression  of  the  House  and  the  feeling,  I  take  it,  is  such 
that  if  this  was  an  original  proposition  to  grant  these  lands  to  these  States  for  the  benefit 
of  railroad  corporations  in  constructing  their  roads,  they  would  not  be  granted  at  all. 

The  only  question  is  whether  we  will  allow  these  grants  to  remain  that  were  made 
twenty-seven  years  ago,  seventeen  years  having  expired  since  the  expiration  of  the  time 
then  the  grant  contemplated  the  completion  of  the  various  lines  of  road.  I  do  not 
believe  the  House  will  entertain  for  a  moment  the  idea  of  continuing  these 'grants 
longer. 


THE  OVERTHROW    OF    MONOPOLIES.  199 

H.  R.  3933.  To  declare  forfeited  lands  granted  to  the  Texas  and  Pacific 
E.  R.  Co. 

Passed  House  January  31,  1884. 

Yeas,  260  ;   nay,  1. 

In  the  Senate,  Feb.  4,  received  and  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands. 
March  7,  reported  with  no  amendment.     No  vote  taken. 

The  report  is  here  given  in  full : 

The  Committee  on  Public  Lands,  to  whom  was  referred  certain  bills  relating  to  the  grant 
o  f  l.inds  in  aid  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific  Railway  Company,  having  had  the  same 
tinder  consideration,  ?nake  the  following  report  : 
Your  committee  have  given  this  case  careful  attention  and  earnest  consideration,  not 
•only  on  account  of  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  involved,  but  because  this  was  the  first 
•grant  considered  by  the  committee  where  serious  opposition  was  made  to  the  proposal  to 
declare  forfeiture  of  the  grant  for  breach  of  the  condition  on  which  it  was  made,  in  which 
several  legal  questions  were  presented  at  the  outset  and  earnestly  argued  by  eminent 
counsel,  questions  which  are  common  to  all  the  cases  of  lapsed  grants  pending  before  the 
committee,  first  among  them  being  the  question  of  the  power  of  Congress  to  interfere  in 
.any  event  ;  so  your  committee  have  carefully  examined  the  whole  matter  before  recom- 
mending what  they  do,  viz.,  that  the  accompanying  bill  be  passed,  declaring  the  grant 
forfeited  for  breach  of  the  condition  on  which  it  was  made,  restoring  the  lands  to  the 
public  domain  for  sale  and  settlement  under  existing  law,  and  protecting  the  rights  of 
settlers  and  claimants  under  the  Government.  We  find  the  facts  deemed  essential  to  be 
as  follows  : 

The  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated  by  act  of  Congress  approved 
March  3,  187 1  (16  Statutes  at  Large,  page  573).  By  section  1  of  that  act  the  route  was 
defined  and  described  as  follows  : 

"From  a  point  at  or  near  Marshall,  county  of  Harrison,  State  of  Texas  ;  thence  by 
the  most  direct  and  eligible  route,  to  be  determined  by  said  company,  near  the  thirty- 
second  parallel  of  north  latitude,  to  a  point  at  or  near  El  Paso  ;  thence  by  the  most  direct 
and  eligible  route,  to  be  selected  by  said  company,  through  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  to 
a  point  on  the  Rio  Colorado  at  or  near  the  southeastern  boundary  of  the  State  of  Califor- 
nia ;  thence  by  the  most  direct  and  eligible  route  to  San  Diego,  Cab,  to  Ship's  Channel, 
in  the  bay  of  San  Diego,  in  the  State  of  California,  pursuing  in  the  location  thereof,  as 
near  as  may  be,  the  thirty-second  parallel  of  north  latitude.  " 

Section  23  provides  : 

"  That  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  with  the  city  of  San 
Francisco,  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  of  California  is  hereby  authorized 
(subject  to  the  laws  of  California)  to  construct  a  line  of  railroad  from  a  point  at  or  near 
Tehachapa  Pass,  by  way  of  Los  Angeles,  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  at  or  near  the 
Colorado  river,  with  the  same  rights,  grants,  and  privileges,  and  subject  to  the  same 
limitations,  restrictions,  and  conditions  as  were  granted  to  said  Southern  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  of  California  by  the  act  of  July  27,  1866.  " 

Section  9  provides  for  a  land  grant  which,  as  described  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 
rior, Ex.  Doc.  144,  Forty-seventh  Congress,  first  session,  is — 

"A  grant  of  every  alternate  section  of  public  land,  not  mineral,  designated  by  odd 
numbers,  to  the  amount  of  twenty  alternate  sections  per  mile  on  each  side  of  the  line  as 
adopted  by  the  company  through  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and  ten  alternate 
sections  per  mile  on  each  side  of  the  line  in  California.  Exception  is  made  of  lands  sold, 
reserved,  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  and  lands  to  which  a  pre-emption  or  homestead  claim 
may  have  attached  at  the  time  the  line  of  the  road  is  definitely  fixed.  " 

"  Indemnity  is  provided  for  lands  thus  lost  to  the  grant  out  of  alternate  odd-num- 
bered sections  not  more  than  ten  miles  from  the  limits  of  the  sections  granted.  Provision 
is  also  made  for  indemnity  for  lands  lost  by  reason  of  the  near  approach  of  the  line  of 
the  road  to  the  boundary  of  Mexico,  and  also  for  mineral  lands  excluded  from  the  grant 
out  of  odd-numbered  sections  nearest  the  line  of  the  road.  " 

Section  17  of  the  act  required  the  company  to  commence  the  construction  of  the  road 
simultaneously  at  San  Diego,  Cal.,  and  at  a  point  at  or  near  Marshall,  Tex.,  and  prose- 
cute the  work  so  that  the  entire  road  should  be  constructed  within  ten  years  after  the 
passage  of  the  act. 

By  the  act  of  May  2,  1872,  however,  the  time  for  the  construction  and  completion  of 
the  road  was  extended  to  May  2,  18S2,  and  the  title  of  the  company  changed  to  the 
Texas  and  Pacific  Railway  Company. 


2C0  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

Section  4  of  the  act  is  as  follows  : 

"That  the  said  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company  shall  have  power  and  lawful  au- 
thority to  purchase  the  stock,  land  grants,  franchises,  and  appurtenances  of,  and  consoli- 
date on  such  terms  as  may  be  agreed  upon  between  the  parties  with,  any  railroad  com- 
pany or  companies  heretofore  chartered  by  Congressional,  State,  or  Territorial  authority 
on  the  route  prescribed  in  the  first  section  in  this  act,  but  no  such  consolidation  shall  be 
with  any  competing  line  of  railroads  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  " 

Section  5  reads  : 

"That  the  said  company  shall  have  power  and  authority  to  make  running  arrange- 
ments with  any  railroad  company  or  companies  heretofore  chartered  or  that  may  be  here- 
after chartered  by  Congressional,  State,  or  Territorial  authority  ;  also  to  purchase  lands, 
or  to  accept  donations  or  grants  of  lands  or  other  property  from  States  or  individuals,  for 
t he  purpose  of  aiding  in  carrying  out  the  obi  eels  of  this  company.  " 

Section  6  reads  : 

"  That  the  rights,  lands,  land  grants,  franchises,  privileges,  and  appurtenances,  and 
property  of  every  description  belonging  to  each  of  the  purchased  or  consolidated  railroad 
company  or  companies,  as  herein  provided,  shall  vest  in  and  become  absolutely  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company:  Provided,  That  in  all  contracts  made  and 
entered  into  by  said  company  with  any  and  all  other  railroad  company  or  companies,  to 
perfect  such  aforesaid  consolidation  or  purchase,  the  indebtedness  or  other  legal  obliga- 
tions of  said  company  or  companies  shall  be  assumed  by  the  said  Texas  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  as  may  be  agreed  upon,  and  no  such  consolidation  or  purchase  shall  impair  any 
lien  which  may  exist  on  any  of  the  railroads  so  consolidated  or  purchased  ;  but  said  com- 
pany shall  not  assume  the  debts  or  obligations  of  any  company  with  which  it  may  con- 
solidate or  purchase  as  aforesaid  to  an  amount  greater  than  the  cash  value  of  the  assets- 
received  from  the  same.  " 

Section  15  provides  : 

"That  all  railroads  constructed,  or   that  maybe  hereafter   constructed,  to  intersect, 
said  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  shall  have  the  right  to  connect  with  that  line  ;" 
that  no  discriminations  shall  be  made,  etc. 

Section  18  provides  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  examine  the  road  as  con- 
structed, and  for  a  report  to  the  President  for  approval,  preliminary  to  the  issue  of 
patents  for  the  land. 

Section  23  reads  : 

"That  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  with  the  City  of  San, 
Francisco,  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  of  California  is  hereby  authoiized 
(subject  to  the  laws  of  California)  to  construct  a  line  of  railroad  from  a  point  at  or  near 
Tehatchapa  Pass,  by  way  of  Los  Angeles,  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad,  at  or  near  the 
Colorado  River,  with  the  same  rights,  grants,  and  privileges,  and  subject  to  the  same 
limitations,  restrictions,  and  conditions  as  were  granted  to  the  said  Southern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  of  California  by  the  act  of  July  27,  1866  :  Provided,  however,  That 
this  section  shall  in  no  way  affect  or  impair  the  rights,  present  or  prospective,  of  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  or  any  other  railroad.  " 

Pending  the  construction  of  the  railroad  of  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad,  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  of  Arizona,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  of 
New  Mexico  were  chartered  by  the  legislatures  of  those  Territories  respectively,  the  objects- 
of  these  corporations  being  to  construct  a  line  of  railroad  from  a  point  (Yuma)  on  the 
the  Colorado  River  (which  was  the  proposed  point  of  junction  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railroad  of  California  with  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad)  eastwardly  to  Texas,  and  practi- 
cally along  the  line  of  the  thirty-second  parallel  of  north  latitude,  substantially  identical 
with  the  route  proposed  by  the  Texas  Pacific  from  El  Paso  (on  the  line  between  Texas 
and  New  Mexico)  westwardly  to  Yuma. 

These  two  corporations  last  named,  it  should  perhaps  be  stated,  are  practically  iden- 
tical with  the  Southern  Pacific  of  California,  all  three  forming,  m  fact,  one  corporation — 
the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  This  is  believed  to  be  all  the  legislation 
necessary  to  be  noticed  in  connection  with' the  question  in  hand. 

Work  was  begun  by  the  Texas  Pacific  company  at  Marshall,  in  Texas,  and  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  company  in  California,  the  latter  progressing  toward  the  point  of  junc- 
tion as  proposed,  Yuma,  and  the  former  westwardly  toward  El  Paso,  on  its  line  by  that 
point  toward  Yuma.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  when  the  Southern  Pacific  reached  Yuma, 
about  April,  1877,  the  Texas  Pacific  had  its  line  in  Texas  .only  completed  to  Fort  Worth,, 
distant  some  1,200  miles  from  Yuma. 

The  delay  in  its  construction  seems  to  have  been  caused  by  the  great  depression  in 
monetary  matters  following  the  panic  of  1873,  and  the  inability  of  the  managers  of  the 
enterprise  (headed  then  by  Mr.  T'homas  Scott)  to  sell  the  bonds  of  the  company  to  realize 
funds  for  the  prosecution  of  the  work. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  201 

Mr.  Scott  then  came  to  Congress  for  relief,  asking  in  substance  that  the  Government 
guarantee  the  interest  on  a  large  amount  of  bonds  which  he  proposed  to  issue,  and 
asserting  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  his  company  to  complete  the  work  on  which  it 
had  entered  and  give  the  country  a  through  line  of  competing  road  to  the  Pacific  coast,  as 
was  contemplated  by  the  act  of  1871,  unless  this  additional  aid  (which  he  claimed  was 
really  only  a  loan  of  credit)  was  given. 

Then  began  the  struggle  between  these  two  corporations,  which  continued  until 
November,  1881,  until  it  was  ended  by  a  contract  between  the  Southern  Pacific  Company 
and  the  Texas  and  Pacific  Company,  then  represented  by  Mr.'  Jay  Gould,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Scott  as  the  head  of  the  last-named  corporation. 

For  reasons  whieh  will  be  apparent  later  in  this  report,  your  committee  deem  it  very 
essential  to  keep  in  mind  the  relations  which  these  companies  sustained  toward  each  other 
during  the  period  construction  was  progressing  of  the  road  of  each,  and  to  remember  that 
the  clearly  expressed  intention  on  the  part  of  Congress  in  the  act  making  this  grant  was 
to  provide  for  a  competing  through  line  of  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  that  San  Diego  was  to  be  the  western  terminus.  At  that  time  the  position  of 
•  the  only  through  transcontinental  line  of  transportation  owned  by  the  Central  Pacific  and 
the  Union  Pacific  companies  was  well  understood  by  the  people  and  tbeir  representatives 
in  Congress. 

The  Congress  had  in  the  charters  to  these  two  corporations  given  them  bounties  to 
aid  in  the  construction  of  their  roads  most  prodigal  in  their  extravagance,  but  the  enter- 
prise of  building  a  transcontinental  line  of  railroad  was  believed  to  be  necessary  for  a 
proper  defense  of  the  country  in  time  of  war,  as  well  as  for  the  proper  transaction  of 
business  between  the  East  and  West. 

The  events  are  too  recent  to  need  recital  here  of  the  monumental  fraud,  treachery, 
and  depredation  committed  by  these  corporations  upon  the  public. 

The  managers  of  these  two  corporations  procured  in  1864  the  passage  of  an  act  sacri- 
ficing every  interest  of  the  people  that  was  protected  by  the  acts  incorporating  them. 

The  second  mortgages  of  the  companies,  aggregating  over  sixty-four  millions  of  dol- 
lars, were  made  a  prior  lien  over  the  lien  of  the  Government  for  its  claim  of  about  the 
same  amount,  and  the  Jirst  lien  of  the  Government  made  second.  Indeed,  as  was  said 
in  debate  on  the  bill,  nothing  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  invent  for  their  benefit  was 
withheld. 

Consolidation  from  ocean  to  ocean  was  expressly  permitted,  and  the  result  was  what 
we  have  all  witnessed,  and  as  a  people  we  have  experienced. 

As  soon  as  the  civil  war  closed  the  old  project  of  a  Southern  trans-continental  route 
was  revived,  and  it  was  favored  by  many  of  the  statesmen  of  that  period  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  aid  the  South  in  recuperating,  and  it  was  only  just,  as  the  North  had  had 
the  benefit  of  the  immense  grants  and  enormous  aids  given  to  the  other  companies  ;  and 
above  all  it  was  plausibly  and  properly  argued  that  the  construction  of  a  rival  compet- 
ing through  line  along  the  32d  parallel  to  San  Diego  would  remedy  the  monopolistic 
evils  so  apparent  as  to  freight  and  passenger  tariffs  over  the  Central  and  Union  Pacific 
roads. 

The  new  route  was  called  the  "  open  highway,"  and,  under  the  leadership  and  man- 
agement of  General  Fremont,  the  new  enterprise,  known  as  the  Memphis  and  El  Paso, 
was  put  on  its  feet. 

It  received  immense  grants  of  land  in  Texas  from  the  legislature  (the  United  States 
having  no  public  lands  in  that  state) ;  was  encouraged  by  Congress,  and  was  prospering 
well,  until,  in  the  attempt  to  secure  the  investment  of  foreign  capital  in  the  enterprise, 
General  Fremont  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  fraud  in  Paris. 

This  brought  the  scheme  to  an  end  apparently,  until  Mr.  Scott,  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad,  was  induced  to  interest  himself  in  the  plan.  To  give  the  enterprise  the 
appearance  of  a  new  project,  and  divested  of  the  odium  attaching  to  the  ignominious 
failure  of  the  old  one,  the  name  of  Memphis  and  El  Paso  was  abandoned  and  that  of  the 
Texas  and  Pacific  adopted.  All  the  land  grants  made  by  Texas  to  the  Memphis  and  El 
Paso  were  transferred  to  the  Texas  Pacific  ;  the  citizens  of  San  Diego  made  large  valua- 
ble donations  of  lands  and  property  to  the  new  company  for  terminal  facilities,  and  the 
assistance  of  Congress  secured  by  the  passage  of  the  act  of  187 1  making  this  grant,  to  aid 
the  "open  highway":  to  secure  a  "through  competing  line  "  to  San  Diego,  and  to 
prevent,  as  far  as  it  seemed  possible  to  do  so,  any  arrangement  or  contract  of  purchase  or 
sale  or  consolidation  with  any  competing  line  of  railroads  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  (sections  4 
and5). 

So  these  two  ideas  are  clearly  apparent  :  that  Congress  intended  to  authorize  this 
special  enterprise  to  act  in  the  construction  of  its  proposed  road  to  San  Diego,  which  road 
was  to  be  a  competitive  line  with  the  Central  and  Union  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  care- 
fully guarded  against  the  loss  of  the  identity  of  the  corporation  it  was  creating  by  provid- 


202  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

ing  that  all  purchases,  consolidation,  property  rights  acquired,  etc. ,  should  be  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Texas  Pacific  Company  (section  6). 

This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  Mr.  Scott  became  interested  in  the  enterprise, 
and  so  continued  until  the  panic  of  1873,  when  active  work  in  Texas  was  suspended  for 
lack  of  necessary  means. 

We  all  remember  that  for  a  time  investors  could  not  be  induced  to  embark  in  the 
most  promising  of  schemes  of  railroad  building  after  the  great  disaster  to  the  Northern 
Pacific. 

So  Mr.  Scott  came  to  Congress  and  urged,  as  an  act  of  justice  to  a  great  enterprise, 
in  the  interest  of  a  healthy  competition,  a  guarantee  of  the  interest  only  on  the  bonds  of 
his  company. 

This  appeal  of  Mr.  Scott  to  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  met  with  sturdy,  strenuous 
opposition  by  the  .Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

That  corporation,  seeing  the  importance  of  the  vast  and  increasing  transcontinental 
traffic,  and  desirous  of  controlling  it  itself,  commenced  operations  for  securtng  it  by,  first, 
defeating  the  agent  created  by  Congress  to  build  the  road,  foreseeing  that  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  Texas  Pacific  was  laboring  were  insurmountable  unless  the  helping 
hand  of  Congress  could  be  extended  to  it ;  second,  by  procuring  the  necessary  authority 
to  build  east  of  Yuma,  and  then  constructing  its  own  road  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  and 
the  Gulf  coast  in  Texas. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  up  to  this  time  the  Southern  Pacific  had  no  rights  east 
of  Yuma,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Colorado  River,  in  California.  The  only  authority  it 
had  from  Congress  was  in  the  last  section  of  the  act  of  1871,  to  build  a  line  of  road  from 
just  above  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad,  at  or  near  the  Colorado 
River  ;  and,  indeed,  that  is  all  the  recognition  Congress  has  ever  given  it.  At  Yuma  the 
power  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Company  ceased,  so  far  as  Congress  was  concerned. 

How  the  Southern  Pacific  labored  to  defeat  the  Texas  Pacific  from  securing  the  aid 
desired  is  best  shown  by  a  few  extracts  from  letters  written  by  Mr.  Huntington,  the 
principal  manager  of  the  Central  Pacific,  to  Mr.  Colton,  the  ostensible  head  of  the  Southern 
Pacific,  which  letters  have  become  public  in  a  litigation  in  California  for  a  division  of  the 
vast  profits  arising  from  the  consummation  of  this  scheme.  The  authenticity  of  these 
letters  has  never  been  denied,  and  what  they  tend  to  or  do  prove  will  be  noticed  here- 
after. 

Just  now  the  disclosures  made  by  these  letters  are  exceedingly  opportune,  and  we 
insert  a  few  of  over  three  hundred  of  the  same  general  character  and  tone. 

These  are  the  specimen  letters  : 

(No.   1.) 

New  York,  November  17,   1874. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  7th  and  9th  instant  are  received.  I  notice  that  you 
are  yet  on  LuttrelFs  trail.  I  hope  you  will  get  some  one  to  convince  him  that  we  are 
good  fellows,  and  that  should  not  be  a  hard  thing  to  do,  for  I  have  no  doubt  of  it  myself. 
I  notice  what  you  say  about  getting  control  of  the  A.  and  P.  franchise  by  getting  a  majority 
of  the  stock.  My  opinion  is  that  a  majority  of  that  stock  is  in  the  hands  of  those  that 
control  the'  A.  and  P.  and  Texas  P.  You  no  doubt  are  aware  that  they  went  in  with 
the  TeAas  P.  some  two  years  ago,  and  that  the  two  companies  agreed  to  run  the  A.  and 
P.  down  to  meet  the  Texas  P.  somewhere  in  Texas,  and  then  run  one  line  through  to  the 
Pacific;  but  will  find  out  all  I  can  and  let  you  know. 

Yours,  truly,  C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  2. ) 

New  York,  November  28,  1874. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  November  27  is  received  with  inclosures.  It  certainly 
was  a  shabby  thing  in  Vining  to  write  such  a  letter.  Towne  wrote  me  and  sent  me  a 
copy  of  the  letter.  I  saw  Dillon  and  he  seemed  very  much  offended  at  V.  for  writing  it, 
and  said  nothing  of  the  kind  should  happen  again.  I  think  I  shall  show  your  letter  to 
Gould,  but  they  are  not  our  kind  of  people.  I  have  sent  out  some  copies  of  Tom 
Scott's  bill  as  amended  by  me.  Read  it  carefully  and  let  me  know  what  you  think  of 
it.  Of  course  the  San  Diego  people  may  not  like  it  unless  you  agree  to  build  a  road 
from  their  place  out  to  connect  with  our  road,  and  you  may  think  best  to  do  that.  It 
certainly  is  very  important  to  S.  F.  that  we  build  the  S.  P.  into  Arizona,  and  it  would 
be  well  for  you  at  once  to  write  some  letters  for  the  influential  men  of  S.  F.  to  sign,  to 
send  to  all  our  M.  C.  and  Senators,  to  go  for  the  bill  as  we  want  it  ;  and  if  you  do  not 
think  it  right  as  it  is,  fix  it  and  send  it  back,  but  if  we  could  get  as  it  is  I  would  be 
satisfied.      Storrs  says  it  will  make  Scott  very  mad,  and  he  thought  it  best  not  to  send  it, 


\ 

THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  203 

and  may  be  he  is  right  ;  but  if  Scott  kicks  at  it,  I  propose  to  say  to  Congress  "  we  will 
build  east  of  the  Colorado  to  meet  the  Texas  P.  without  aid,  and  then  see  how  many 
members  will  dare  give  him  aid  to  do  what  we  offered  to  do  without.  My  only  fear  then 
would  be  the  cry  that  the  C.  P.  and  the  S.  P.  was  all  one  and  would  be  a  vast  monopoly, 
&c. ,  and" that  is  what  we  must  guard  against,  and  that  is  one  reason  why  you  should  be 
in  Washington.  I  send  copy  of  my  letter  to  Scott  on  sending  the  bill  ;  he  sent  it  for  me 
to  fix  to  suit  me,  The  U.  P.  people  are  not  yet  ready  to  order  steamers. 
Yours,  truly, 


(No.  3. ) 


C.  P.  HUNTINGTON 


New  York,  November  20,  1874. 


Friend  Colton:  Herewith  I  send  copy  of  bill  that  Tom  Scott  proposes  to  put  through 
Congress  this  winter.  Now  I  wish  you  would  at  once  get  as  many  of  the  associates  to- 
gether as  you  can,  and  let  me  then  know  what  you  want.  Scott  sent  me  three  copies 
fixed  as  he  wants  them,  and  asked  me  to  help  him  pass  them  through  Congress,  and  if  I 
would  not  do  it  as  he  has  fixed  it,  then  he  asked  me  to  fix  it  so  that  I  will,  or  in  a  way 
that  I  will  support  it.  Now  do  attend  to  this  at  once,  and  in  the  meantime  I  will  fix  it 
here  and  see  how  near  we  are  together  when  yours  gets  here.  Scott  is  prepared  to  pay, 
or  promises  to  pay,  a  large  amount  of  money  to  pass  his  bijl,  but  I  do  not  think  he  can 
pass  it,  although  I  think  this  coming  session  of  Congress  will  be  composed  of  the  hun- 
griest set  of  men  that  ever  got  together,  and  that  the  d only  knows  what  they  will 

do.  But  as  Scott's  bill  proposes  to  give  up  the  A.  and  P.  land  grant  (the  west  end  of  it), 
I  am  not  sure  that  it  would  not  be  as  well  to  let  the  bill  stand  in  that  way,  we  stopping 
the  Texas  Pacific  at  the  Colorado  river.  If  we  ask  to  come  this  side  of  the  Colorado  it 
will  be  hard  to  stop  the  Texas  P.  from  going  west  of  it.  I  think  the  Texas  P.  or  some 
of  their  friends  will  be  likely  to  take  the  ground  that  the  S.  P.  is  controlled  by  the  same 
parties  that  control  the  Central,  and  that  there  must  be  two  separate  corporations  that 
run  roads  into  San  Francisco,  and  it  will  be  very  hard  for  us  to  make  head  against  that 
argument,  and  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  Colton  had  better  come  over  and  spend  a 
few  weeks  at  least  in  Washington.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  you  to  send  some  party 
down  to  Arizona  to  get  a  bill  passed  in  the  Territorial  legislature  granting  the  right  to 
build  a  railroad  east  from  the  Colorado  river  (leaving  the  river  near  Fort  Mohave), 
have  the  franchise  free  from  taxation  or  its  property,  and  so  that  the  rates  of  fare  and 
freights  cannot  be  interfered  with  until  the  dividends  on  the  common  stock  shall  exceed 
10  per  cent.  ?  I  think  that  would  be  about  as  good  as  a  land  grant.  It  would  not  do  to 
have  it  known  that  we  had  any  interest  in  it,  for  the  reason  that  it  would  cost  us  much 
more  money  to  get  such  a  bill  through  if  it  was  known  that  it  was  for  us  ;  and  then  Scott 
would  fight  it  if  he  thought  we  had  anything  to  do  with  it.  If  such  a  bill  was  passed  I 
think  there  could  at  least  be  got  from  Congress  a  wide  strip  for  right  of  way,  machine 
shops,  &c. 

Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  4.) 

New  York,  December  10,  1874. 

Friend  Colton:  Your  two  letters  of  November  29th  are  received.  The  Texas  Pa- 
cific bill,  as  amended  by  me,  is  on  the  way  to  California.  As  it  is  somewhat  different 
in  theory  from  your  views,  as  set  forth  in  your  letter,  I  wdl  not  reply  to  you  in  detail 
before  you  receive  the  bill.  I  agree  with  you  that  there  will  no  bill  pass  this  ses- 
sion granting  such  aid  as  is  asked  for.  I  think  we  must  add  section  to  the  bdl  as  sent 
out  that  will  allow,  or  may  be  compel  us,  to  build  a  road  to  connect  San  Diego  with 
our  line.  On  account  of  this  legislation  I  think  it  important  that  the  S.  P.  should  be  dis- 
connected from  the  Central  as  much  as  it  well  can  be.  And,  as  you  say,  I  think  it 
should  have  a  superintendent  that  does  not  connect  with  the  C.  P. ,  although  I  think  it 
would  be  difficult  to  get  another  man  as  good  as  Towne.  I  agree  with  you  fully  when 
you  say  our  telegraph  superintendent  is  no  good.  I  sent  you  on  the  8th  copy  of  my 
letter  to  Scott.  I  have  just  received  his  reply.  I  wdl  have  copy  of  it  made  and  sent  to 
you,  also  my  reply  befoie  this  goes,  and  will  send  them  with  this.  This  S.  P.  is  an  im- 
portant matter,  and  should  be  attended  to  at  once.      I  am  glad  you  are  coming  over. 

Yours,  truly, 

•    C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 


204  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

No.  5.) 

December  8,  1874. 

Dear  Sir  : — Herewith  I  hand  you  two  copies  of  the  proposed  bill  for  your  road, 
with  such  alterations  as  I  want  embodied  therein.  As  i:  is  a  hard  time  for  building  rail- 
roads just  now,  and  as  we  are  all  interested  in  the  construction  of  this  road,  I  trust  that 
these  alterations  will  meet  your  approval,  and  that  such  arrangements  will  be  made  as 
will  secure  the  early  completion  of  the  road. 
Truly  yours, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

President. 
Hon.  Thomas  A.  Scott, 

President  Texas  and  Pacific  Railway  Company,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

(No.  6.) 

Texas  and  Pacific  Railway  Co.  ,  ) 

Office  of  the  President,        > 

Philadelphia,  December  9,  1884.  ) 

My  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  your  letter  of  December  8,  and  am  sorry  you  took  the 
trouble  you  have  with  our  bill.  We  expect  to  build  our  road  to  San  Diego,  as  already 
pledged  to  the  public  to  do.  We  had  hoped  that  it  would  be  to  your  interest  to  connect 
with  us  at  San  Gorgonio  P,ass.  Your  suggestions  are  totally  inadmissible,  and  I  am 
rather  surprised  to  have  you  make  them  after  the  many  statements  you  have  made  to  me 
in  regard  to  this  matter. 

Very  truly,  vours, 

THOMAS  A.  SCOTT, 

President. 
C.  P.  Huntington,  Esq. , 

Vice-President,  New    York. 

(No.    7.) 

New  York,  January  17,  1875. 
Friend  Colton:  *  *  *  I  have  received  several  letters  and  telegrams  from 
Washington  to-day,  all  calling  me  there,  as  Scott  will  certainly  pass  his  Texas  Pacific 
bill  if  I  do  not  come  over,  and  I  shall  go  over  to-night,  but  I  think  he  could  not  pass  his 
bill  if  I  should  help  him ;  but  of  course  I  cannot  know  this  for  certain,  and  just  what 
effort  to  make  against  him  is  what  troubles  me.  It  costs  money  to  fix  things  so  that  I 
would  know  his  bill  would  not  pass.  I  believe  with  $200,000  I  can  pass  our  bill,  but 
I  take  it  that  it  is  not  worth  that  much  to  us. 
Yours  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.    8.) 

New  York,  March  25,  1875. 
Friend  Colton:  Your  telegram  in  relation  to  passenger  coaches  is  received  and  is 
having  attention.  Tom  Scott  has  gone,  or  is  going  very  soon,  over  the  Texas  Pacific 
road,  and  so  on  into  Mexico,  and  I  hear  of  several  prominent  parties  going  to  Mexico 
with  him.  He  has  commenced  to  get  up  his  Texas  Pacific  connected  with  some  Mexican 
scheme,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  he  will  be  before  Congress  next  winter  in  great 
force,  but  we  ought  to  be  in  condition  to  at  least  keep  him  this  side  of  the  Colorado 
river.  I  have  been  at  work  considerable  of  the  time  since  you  left  getting  up  pamphlet 
in  relation  to  the  S.  P. ,  giving  many  reasons  why  the  bonds  should  be  very  good,  and  I 
think  after  you  have  read  the  book  you  will  take  some  of  the  securities.  Colburn  is 
putting  the  facts  in  a  readable  shape.  I  find  him  to  be  a  very  valuable  man.  Cannot 
you  do  something  to  bring  up  the  gross  earnings  of  ihe  S.  P.  ?  They  are  very  small  for 
so  much  road  as  is  being  operated.  I  think  that  road  should  have  a  first  class 
superintendent.  I  send  with  this  copy  of  B.  S.  Manufacturing  Company  letter  in 
relation  to  curtains  for  sleeping  car. 
Yours  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON.     . 

(No.  9. ) 

New  York,  April  7th,  1875. 

Friend  Colton  :  Your  three  letters  of  April  27th  and  one  of  28th,  Nos.  23,  24,  25, 
and  26,  are  received.  I  read  your  letter  No.  25  where  it  refers  to  matter  here  with  much 
satisfaction,  as  it  shows  that  you  understand  the  whole  situation  between  P.  M.,  O. 
and  O.  and  U.  P.  and  C.  P.      Any  one  fully   understanding   the  position  of  the  different 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  205 

companies  would  see  at  a  glance  that  the  C.  P.  is  not  entirely  master  of  the  situation,  but 
I  am  very  well  satisfied  that  if  we  hold  steadily  to  our  purposes  and  not  strain  our  credit 
too  much  we  shall  finally  beat  all  the  wild  speculators  like  Jones  and  Gould.  If  I 
mistake  not  Jones  is  a  small  gun  compared  with  Gould.  I  have  set  matters  to  work  in 
the  South  that  I  think  will  switch  most  of  the  South  oft"  from  Tom.  Scott's  Texas  and 
Pacific  bill.  I  am  having  articles  written  and  set  afloat  in  the  papers  here  about  O.  and 
O.  C.  Co.,  and  they  make  the  rounds  by  being  recopied,  and  as  it  costs  nothing  it  is  a 
cheap  way  of  advertising.  I  am  also  having  articles  written  and  published  as  though 
written  in  the  places  where  we  buy  cars  and  locomotives,  etc.,  for  the  S.  P.  It  gives  the 
S.  P.  some  notority  without  cost.  I  notice  what  you  say  of  C.  B.  stock.  If  you  will  read 
my  letters  to  Stanford,  Nos.  510,  521,529,  and  some  others  that  I  do  not  recollect  numbers 
of,  you  will  have  my  views.  I  am  often  asked  by  my  associates  in  California  about  my 
views  in  the  matters  that  I  have  written  to  the  others  of,  and  allow  me  to  say  that  all 
letters  that  I  number  consecutively  I  have  supposed  would  be  read  by  all,  and  then 
go  into  the  basket  together.  As  to  more  fifty-pound  steel  or  iron  rails,  I  must  say 
that  at  the  present  outlook  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  as  many  contracted  for  as  it  is 
safe  to  have  when  we  include  the  cost  of  buying  them. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  10.) 

New  York,  May  8th,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  29th  April,  No.  28,  was  received.  I  send  with  this 
receipted  bill  of  the  six  coaches  bought  of  Gilbert,  Brush  &  Co.  All  the  material  that  I 
buy  here  is  paid  for  by  the  Central  Pacific.  Some  of  it,  like  these  coaches,  I  know  are 
for  the  S.  P.,  but  just  whether  they  are  to  be  charged  to  the  S.  P.  or  the  Western 
Development  Company  I  do  not  know.  Then  some  other  things — say  rails — I  do  not 
know  whether  they  will  go  on  to  the  S.P.,  or  not,  and  you  will  see  the  necessity  of 
watching  the  material  as  it  arrives  out,  and  see  that  it  is  charged  to  the  proper  company, 
and  when  material  is  ordered  if  you  would  let  me  know  to  or  for  what  company,  I  would 
then  see  that  it  was  charged  here  to  the  proper  party. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.   11.) 

New  York,  May  28,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  20th  is  received  with  newspaper  clippings.  I  do  not 
think  Booth  made  many  votes  by  his  Grand  Hotel  speech.  The  Governor  said — Gov- 
ernor S.  —  some  good  things  to  the  Chronicle  interviewer  ;  but  I  think  it  unfortunate 
that  he  should  so  closely  connect  the  C.  P.  with  the  S.  P. ,  as  that  is  the  only  weapon  our 
enemies  have  to  fight  us  with  in  Congress. 

******* 

Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.   12.) 

New  York,  September  15,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Scott  is  stirring  up  the  South  on  his  Texas  Pacific.  Parties  are 
sending  me  papers  every  day — some  for  him,  some  against  him.  I  have  written  three 
letters  to-day  to  different  parties  in  the  South  on  T.  P.  R.  R.  matters.  I  think  it  is  of 
much  importance  that  we  have  some  rights  m  Arizona,  and  if  you  could  get  them  I 
think  you  should  do  so  at  once.  You  know  my  views,  and  I  had  a  long  talk  with 
Gage  on  the  matter,  and  if  we  could  get  two  franchises  to  run  through  the  State  I  think 
we  should  do  so  at  once.  We  should  not  be  known  in  it,  but  should  be  sure  that  we 
have  the  control,  in  black  and  white,  before  they  become  a  law.  I  will  write  again  in 
a  few  days.  Somehow  I  have  not  got  my  ideas  in  line  yet. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.   13.) 

New  York,  September  18,  1875. 

Friend  Colton:  Scott  is  doing  all  that  he  possibly  can  to  help  him  in  the  passage  of 
his  Texas  Pacific  bill  through  the  next  Congress.  Scott  gets  parties  to  write  letters  and 
has  them  published  in  the  Southern  papers.  I  send  one  with  this  as  sample.  This,  as 
you  will  see,  was  written  by  G.  T.  Beauregard  to  Senator  Gordon,  of  Atlanta,  Ga. 
He  is  making  the  old  fight  over  again — that  it  is  the  Central  Pacific  that  is  fighting  him 
in  this,  and  that  they  (the  C.  P. )  do  not  intend  to  let  the  South  have  a  road  if  they  can 


206  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

help  it.  Our  people  in  California  made  a  great  mistake  when  they  undone  what  we 
done  last  winter  to  separate  these  two  interests.  But  I  see  no  way  to  help  it,  so  we  must 
make  the  fight  under  this  disadvantage.  Simonton  has  lost  much  here  in  his  fight 
against  Ralston,  and  I  should  not  be  snrprised  if  he  lost  his  position  with  the  Associated 
Press. 

Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

P.  S.  — Of  course  I  hold  that  Colton  and  his  friends  hold  the  S.  P.  Co. 

H. 

(HO 

New  York,  September  27,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  18th  with  inclosure,  as  stated,  is  received.  You 
must  be  very  busy  with  all  your  associates  out  of  the  city.  I  notice  by  McCarthy's 
letter  to  Mr.  Crocker  that  the  people  of  San  Diego  will  join  with  us  if  he  will  agree  to 
to  build  east  from  their  city,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  we  had  better  do  that,  as  that 
would  strengthen  Wigginton  very  much  to  have  his  people  ask  him  to  fight  for  a  bill  as 
we  want  it.  Scott  is  making  the  strongest  possible  effort  to  pass  his  bill  the  coming 
session  of  Congress.  He  gets  every  little  gathering  in  the  South  to  pass  resolutions  favor- 
ing the  Texas  Pacific  bill,  then  those  that  the  Texas  Pacific  owes  name  is  legion,  and,  of 
course,  they  are  all  for  it  ;  then  he  is  promising  a  connection  with  all  the  broken-down 
roads  in  the  South,  with  a  promise  of  money  to  help  them  all  if  his  bill  passes,  and  by 
some  kind  of  a  turn  he  is  settling  up  with  all  those  that  hold  him  personally,  and  that  is 
to  help  him,  as  it  makes  his  promises  worth  something  with  the  broken-down  fellows  that 
he  is  agreeing  to  help.  If  we  had  a  franchise  to  build  a  road  or  two  roads  through  Ari- 
zona (we  controlling,  but  having  it  in  the  name  of  another  party)  then  have  some  party 
in  Washington  to  make  a  local  fight  and  asking  for  the  guarantee  of  their  bonds  by  the 
United  States,  and  if  that  could  not  be  obtained,  offering  to  build  the  road  without  any 
aid,  it  could  be  used  against  Scott  in  such  a  way  that  I  do  not  believe  any  politician 
would  dare  vote  for  it.  Cannot  you  have  Safford  call  the  Legislature  together  and  grant 
such  charters  as  we  want  at  a  cost  of  say  $25,000  ?  If  we  could  get  such  a  charter  as  I 
spoke  to  you  of  it  would  be  worth  much  money  to  us.  If  there  is  anything  done  it  must 
be  done  quickly.  I  am  very  sorry  that  Sargent  is  feeling  so  hard  towards  us,  but  I 
shall  endeavor  to  see  him  before  Congress  meets.  I  have  bought  the  tunnel  bolts  at 
three  and  a  half  currency  instead  of  nine  cents  gold,  as  was  being  paid  by  Mr.  Crocker 
when  I  was  in  California.  I  think  money  is  too  cheap  with  you  all  in  California,  and 
that  we  can  be  beat  in  building  railroads  by  those  that  place  more  value  on  a  dollar  than 
we  do,  and  I  think  when  any  one  of  us  goes  to  the  front  in  a  car  that  weighs  say  twenty 
tons,  it  adds  to  the  cost  of  every  mile  of  road  that  we  build  thereafter  more  than  $100  per 
mile.  I  wish  you  would  let  me  know  who  ordered  the  officers'  car  that  is  now  running 
on  the  S.  P.  Please  let  me  know  what  the  new  transfer-boat  cost. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.    P.    HUNTINGTON. 


(No.  15.) 

New  York,  October  4,  1875. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  23d  and  25th  of  September,  Nos.  68  and  69,  are 
received.  I  expect  to  go  to  Washington  next  week  and  I  will  look  into  the  matter  of 
which  you  write.  That  matter  of  directors  has  been  talked  of  by  the  U.  P.  people  and 
others  for  some  years,  and  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  the  Texas  Pacific  (Tom  Scott's) 
should  annoy  us  in  that  way  if  he  could.  Sam.  Morton  was  just  in  and  says  that  he 
obtained  a  judgment  a  few  days  since  against  Fremont's  old  road  that  was  consolidated 
with  the  Texas  Pacific  for  $23,000,  and  that  there  is  other  claims  against  it  that  Tom 
Scott  promised  to  pay  ;  and  Morton  says  he  has  applied  for  a  receiver  and  is  sure  to  get 
it  in  less  than  ten  days  if  Scott  does- not  pay  him  his  money.  I  hear  something  every 
day  of  what  Scott  is  doing  in  the  South  for  his  Texas  Pacific.  I  cannot  believe  that  he 
will  get  through  ;  but  one  of  our  weak  points  will  be  having  no  rights  in  Arizona  under 
which  we  can  build  roads.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  getting  our  finances  in  a 
better  condition  than  they  have  been,  and  hope  with  you  that  you  will  pay  our  old  friend 
Cohen  what  we  owe  him.  Nothing  new  here.  Our  matters  moving  about  as  usual. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 


THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  207 

(NO.  1 6.) 

New  York,  October  9,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  *  *  *  It  seems  to  me  that  we  can  as  well  protect  the  Central 
by  carrying  the  Mohave  branch  of  the  S.  P.  out  700  or  800  miles  from  San  Francisco, 
as  though  we  went  to  Salt  Lake,  and  if  we  have  to  build  as  far  east  as  Salt  Lake  it 
should  be  on  some  line  farther  south,  where  we  could  connect  with  something  more 
agreeable  than  the  U.  P.  I  think  it  very  important  that  we  have  two  franchises  to  run 
from  the  Colorado  River  through  Arizona  to  the  east  line  of  the  Territory.  Such  ones 
as  those  I  spoke  to  you  of  would  be  very  valuable  to  us.  I  suppose  they  would  cost  less 
to  have  other  parties  than  ourselves  stand  at  the  front  while  they  are  being  obtained  — 
that  is,  if  they  should  be  free  from  taxation  and  interference  with  the  fares  and  freight 
rates.  But  then  after  the  charters  were  obtained  I  think  they  would  serve  us  best  to  have 
if  known  that  they  were  controlled  by  the  S.  P.  I  am  endeavoring  to  get  a  combination 
of  interests  to  build  a  road  from  New  Orleans  to  El  Paso.  I  had  one  party  in  to-day 
largely  interested  in  a  road  on  that  line  running  west  from  New  Orleans  into  Texas  (it 
was  El  Van  Hoffman),  and  he  asked  me  what  right  we  had  to  build  roads  in  Arizona.  I 
told  him  I  did  not  know,  but  I  had  no  doubt  we  could  get  the  right  if  we  had  not  got  it. 
Please  let  me  know  how  you  would  build  in  the  Territory  at  this  time  if  you  wished  to 
do  so.  I  received  a  letter  to-day  from  Washington.  It  stated  that  Scott  was  there  a 
few  days  ago,  and  talked  very  loud  about  Texas  P.  That  he  should  surely  pass  his  bill 
the  coming  session  of  Congress. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  17.) 

New  York,  October  18,  1875. 

Friend  Colton  :  *  *  *  In  your  interesting  letter  of  the  5th  you  mention  San 
Diego  matters.  Now,  it  is  well  to  switch  that  people  from  the  Texas  Pacific  road  ;  but 
I  would  suggest  that  you  keep  on  asking  them  what  they  will  do,  but  not  make  them 
any  definite  proposition,  for  if  you  do  it  will  be  sent  East  at  once,  and  I  am  working 
with  the  South  and  saying  to  them  (and  getting  some  good  articles  published)  that  our 
interest  lays  with  them  ;  that  what  San  Francisco  and  California  wants  is  a  direct  con- 
nection with  New  Orleans  and  other  Gulf  ports,  and  that  our  interest  lays  that  way,  and 
we  oppose  the  Texas  Pacific  because  we  think  if  it  is  built  it  will  prevent  for  many  years 
our  getting  such  a  connection,  and  I  have  not  had  any  talk  with  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  for  the  above  reasons.  You  are  mistaken  about  the  directors'  car  on  the  S.  P. 
It  was  built  before  I  was  president,  and  was  on  the  road  before  I  knew  anything  about 
it.  I  was  making  no  particular  objection  to  it,  but  I  thought  I  would  kind  of  like  to 
know  how  it  came  on  the  road.  I  am  glad  to  learn,  as  I  do  by  yours  of  the  7th,  that  you 
are  settling   for  east-bound  business   in    California  with  P.  M.  S.  S.  Co. ,  for  they  are 

the to  do  anything  with  here.    As  to  Oregon  matters,  we  had  best  keep  them  with 

us  as  long  as  we  can,   and  I  have  sometimes  thought  it  would  be  well  to  tell  them  what 
we  would  do,  as  the  N.  P.  people  are  again  in  the  field,  but  they  will  not  be  likely  to 
hurt    any  one  for    some  time,  unless   some  fellow  should   lend  them  some  money  ;  then 
that  fellow  no  doubt  would  get  hurt. 
Yours  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  18. ) 

New  York,  November  10,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  October  23,  1875,  No.  85,  is  before  me.  Dr.  Gwin  is  also 
here.  I  think  the  doctor  can  do  us  some  good  if  he  can  work  under  cover,  but  if  he  is 
to  come  to  the  surface  as  our  man  I  think  it  would  be  better  that  he  should  not  come,  as 
he  is  very  obnoxious  to  very  many  on  the  Republican  side  of  the  House,  and  then  there 
is  so  many  things  about  our  business  that  he  does  not  know,  and  he  has  not  the  time  to 
learn  it  before  Congress  comes  and  goes.  It  was  very  unfortunate  that  he  came  over  in 
directors'  car  with  Mr.  Crocker.  I  received  a  letter  to-day  from  a  party  in  Massachu- 
setts that  said  that  Gorham  and  Sargent  were  very  much  offended  because  Gwin  was,  or 
rather  had,  come  over  to  look  after  our  interest  in  Washington.  I  am,  however,  disposed 
to  think  that  Gwin  can  do  us  some  good,  but  not  as  our  agent,  but  as  an  anti-subsidy 
Democrat,  and  also  as  a  Southern  man  with  much  influence  in  the  South  in  showing  the 
Southern  people  that  the  Texas  and  Pacific  R.  R.  is  in  no  way  a  Southern  Pacific  road, 
but  a  road,  if  built  by  the  Government,  would  prevent  the  Southern  States  from  having  a 
road  to  the  Pacific  for  many  years.  But  Gwin  must  not  be  known  as  our  man.  *  *  * 
Yours,  etc.,  C.  P.  H. 


208  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

(No.  19. ) 

New  York,  November  13,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Your  dispatch  that  you  had  sent  $200,000  gold  is  received.  Dr. 
Gwin  left  for  the  South  yesterday.  I  think  he  can  do  us  considerable  good  if  he  sticks 
for  hard  money  and  anti-subsidy  schemes,  but  if  it  was  understood  by  the  public  that 
he  was  here  in  our  interest  it  would  no  doubt  hurt  us.  When  he  left  I  told  him  he 
must  not  write  to  me,  but  when  he  wanted  I  should  know  his  whereabouts,  etc. ,  to 
write  to  R.  T.  Colburn,  of  Elizabeth,  N.  J.  I  have  had  several  interviews  with  the 
Houston  and  Texas  Central  Railroad  people.  This  road  is  built  from  Galveston  to 
Austin,  and  is  the  only  live  road  in  Texas.  It  has  a  land  grant  to  the  west  line  of  the 
State  (Texas)  of  4,769,280  acres.  It  is  owned  by  William  E.  Dodge,  Moses  Taylor,  W. 
M.  Rice,  and  other  strong  men  of  this  city.  I  saw  Dodge  a  few  days  since  with  the  view 
of  having  them  build  to  El  Paso,  antl  we  build  to  that  point  to  meet  them.  He  said  he 
thought  they  would  do  it.  He  said  he  was  opposed  to  the  Government  granting  any  aid 
to  his  or  any  other  road.  D.  has  been  sick  ever  since  I  saw  him,  so  I  went  to-day  and 
saw  Moses  Taylor.  He  said  he  liked  the  idea,  aliid  that  he  would  talk  it  up  with  his 
people,  etc.  There  will  be  no  Government  aid  granted  this  session,  and  if  we  can  get 
the  H.  and  T.  Central  to  stand  in  with  us  and  offer  to  build  a  line  through,  we  build  to 
El  Paso  from  the  west  and  they  from  the  east,  I  think  Scott's  fish  will  be  cooked.  Budd 
is  doing  good  work  in  the  Gulf  States.  Has  the  70  shares  of  glass  stock  been  got  in  ? 
Plow  are  you  progressing  with  the  machine-shop  grounds  ?  I  borrowed  yesterday 
$100,000  easy  for  4,  5,  and  6  months  at  7  per  cent.  No  commission.  I  think  I  shall 
take  up  some  12  months'  paper  at  12  per  cent. 
Yours,   truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  20. ) 

New  York,  November  23,   1875. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  13th,  No.  95,  is  received,  and  I  am  glad  that  you  see 
your  way  clear  to  send  me  $1,500,000  for  interest  before  the  1st  of  January,  as  our 
payments  are  very  large  in  December,  and  this  fight  with  the  Texas  Pacific  will  hurt 
us  to  the  utmost  that  they  can  in  the  way  of  all  kinds  of  false  reports.  They  of  course 
will  have  some  friends  in  Congress.  They  will  offer  resolutions  to  investigate  us, 
stating  that  we  have  forfeited  our  charter,  etc.  I  was  told  a  few  days  ago  that  Scott 
said  he  would  make  us  let  go  of  his  Texas  Pacific.  The  South  are  getting  very  much  in 
earnest  in  their  opposition  to  Scott's  project.  I  get  papers  from  the  South  almost  every 
day  pitching  into  him.  I  have  not  heard  from  Gwin  since  he  left. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  21.  ) 

New  York,  November  24,  1875. 

Friend  Colton:  Your  dispatch  of  the  22d,  advising  of  the  sending  of  another 
$100,000  in  gold,  is  received.  Colonel  Morton,  whom  you  no  doubt  will  recollect,  was 
in  the  office  to-day,-  and  said  he  had  had  a  long  conference  with  Bond,  V.-P.  of  the 
Texas  Pacific  road,  and  Morton  said  some  one  asked  him  to  find  out  what  I  wanted. 
I  said  to  M.  that  I  did  not  think  the  S.  P.  had  any  proposition  to  make;  that  if  the 
Texas  P.  had  any  to  make  it  would  be  considered,  but  it  was  my  opinion  that  no  subsidy 
bill  could  pass  Congress  this  session,  if  all  the  railroads  in  the  country  were  working  for 
it.  I  think  we  shall  hear  from  them  again.  Do  we  want  to  help  the  bill,  even  if  we 
were  allowed  to  go  to  El  Paso  by  the  act  if  it  should  pass  ?  Crocker  was  in  the  office 
to-day,  and  I  spoke  to  him  about  the  S.  P.  sending  me  a  special  power  of  attorney  to 
act  for  the  S.  P.  before  Congress  and  make  any  proposition  to  build  the  S.  -P.  to  meet 
railroads  on  this  side,  etc.  Mr.  C.  said  he  would  attend  to  it,  but  I  write  this  to  remind 
him,  as  he  took  no  memorandum.  I  want  you  to  make  such  a  proposition  as  I  wrote  to 
you  for  some  days  since.  I  am  getting  the  South  well  waked  up  on  Scott's  Southern- 
Northern  project. 

Yours  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  22.  ) 

New  York,  December  16,  1875. 

Friend  Colton:  Your  two  letters  of  the  6th,  Nos.  109  and  no,  are  received,  with 
inclosures.  I  have  looked  over  the  two  bills  that  you  sent.  They  are  very  well,  but 
I  do  not  think  that  we  shall  be  able  to  pass  either  of  them,  and  I  am  no  ways  clear 
that  we  want  to  pass  the  A.  and  P.  amendment  if  we  could,  as  it  would   add  so  much 


THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  209 

to  the  work  to  be  done  by  the  S.  P.  that  I  think  it  would  prevent  our  selling  a  S.  P. 
bond  longer  than  we  can  afford  to  wait.  I  have  been  trying  to  amend  the  Texas 
Pacific  act  so  as  to  allow  the  officers  of  the  S.  P.  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
construction  co.  that  would  be  likely  to  build  the  road,  -  as  was  thought  best  to 
have  some  of  the  officers  of  the  railroad  co.  that  were  financially  strong  take  an 
interest  in  the  building  co.  ;  and  I  recollect  that  it  was  at  one  time  thought  there 
could  not  be  outsiders  found  that  would  take  all  the  stock  of  the  construction  co. 
I  shall  do  what  I  can  to  get  the  Texas  Pacific  act  amended  so  as  to  allow  the  S.  P. 
to  build  east  of  the  Colorado  River,  but  I  much  doubt  being  able  to  do  anything,  for 
if  Scott  cannot  pass  his  Texas  Pacific  bill  he  can  do  much  to  hinder  us  from  passing 
ours.  Then  the  A.  and  P.  will  oppose  it  with  what  power  they  have.  Then,  of  course, 
the  U.  P.  would  oppose  under  cover,  if  not  otherwise;  at  least  I  know  we  should  if 
we  were  in  their  place.  Then  the  politicians  would  naturally  be  against  it,  as  they 
would  think  it  would  do  them  good  to  prevent  this  grant  going  to  the  S.  P.,  as  if  not  it 
would  be  likely  to  come  back  to  the  people.  I  shall  do  what  I  can,  but  you  had  better 
make  your  calculations  to  build  the  road  east  of  the  Colorado  River  on  what  you  can 
get  out  of  the  Territories  and  the  road  itself.  If  you  expect  to  get  anything  in  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico,  I  would  suggest  that  you  do  not  do  as  we  did  in  Utah — wait  until 
the  enemy  was  in  possession.  Of  course  you  noticed  the  vote  of  the  House  yesterday  on 
subsidies — 223  against  and  33  for.  I  was  just  told  that  Scott  said  after  the  vote  that  it  was 
no  indication  that  he  would  not  pass  his  Texas  Pacific  bill.  I  have  received  several 
letters  from  Texas  in  the  last  few  days.  They  would  like  to  work  with  the  S.  P. ,  but 
are  fearful  of  the  Texas  P.,  as  I  have  taken  the  ground  that  there  would  be  no  Govern- 
ment money  aid  granted  and  the  United  States  has  no  land  in  Texas,  and  as  the  legis- 
lature does  not  meet  in  Texas  until  March,  so  they  can  get  nothing  from  the  State  this 
winter,  hence  they  are  disposed  to  fight  shy  for  the  moment  ;  but  I  think  when  the 
Texas  legislature  meets,  the  Texas  Central  Railroad  Co.  will  ask  $10,000  per  mile  of 
the  State  from  Austin  to  El  Paso,  and  they  have  a  land  grant  of  nearly  5,000,000 
acres. 

I  have  been  thinking  that  it  possibly  would  be  well  for  the  S.  P.  to  ask  direct  of 
Texas  say  $10,000  per  mile  from  Austin  to  El  Paso,  and  there  is  a  very  important  land 
grant  from  Texas  to  the  Austin  and  Pacific  Railroad  Co.  I  am  told  that  this  grants  six* 
teen  sections  per  mile  from  Austin  to  El  Paso,  and  they  have  three  years  from  next  May 
to  build  the  first  twenty-five  miles.  What  do  you  all  think  of  it?  I  have  just  bought 
$40,000  Central  paper  that  had  about  three  months  to  run  at  10  per  cent. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 
(No.  23.) 

New  York,  December  22,  1875. 

Friend  Colton  :  Your  letters  of  the  nth  inst.,  Nos.  in  and  112,  are  received' 
also,  your  dispatch  that  you  would  send  $125,000  in  gold.  You  need  send  more  gold 
for  the  January  interest.  I  notice  the  progress  on  the  tunnels  ;  they  go  slow.  I  hope 
the  work  on  that  next  to  the  longest  one  in  the  Tehachipi  will  be  pushed.  I  am  glad  to 
notice  that  you  are  thinking  of  commencing  it  soon.  What  is  the  exact  length  of  the 
San  Fernando  tunnel  ?  I  think  the  doctor  will  return  to  California  in  January.  I  have 
just  returned  from  Washington.  The  doctor  (Gwin)  was  unfortunate  about  the  railroad 
committee  ;  that  is,  there  was  not  a  man  put  on  the  committee  that  was  on  his  list,  and  I 
must  say  I  was  deceived  ;  and  he  was  often  with  Kerr,  and  K.  was  at  his  rooms  and 
spent  nearly  one  evening.  The  committee  is  not  necessarily  a  Texas  Pacific,  but  it  is  a 
commercial  committee,  and  I  have  not  much  fear  but  that  they  can  be  convinced  that 
ours  is  the  right  bill  for  the  country.  If  things  could  have  been  left  as  we  fixed  them 
last  winter  there  would  have  been  little  difficulty  in  defeating  Scott's  bill ;  but  their 
only  argument  is,  it  is  controlled  by  the  Central.  That  does  not  amount  to  much  beyond 
this  :  It  allows  members  to  vote  for  Scott's  bill  for  one  reason  and  give  the  other — that  it 

was  to  break  up  a  great  monopoly,  etc.     If  these interviewers  would  keep  out  of 

the  way,  it  would  be  much  easier  traveling.     I  send  a  few  clippings. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 
(No.  24.) 

New  York,  December  17,  1875k 
Friend  Colton  :  I  expect  to  have   a  bill  ready  early  next  week  so  amending  the 
Texas  Pacific  act  as  to  allow  the   S.  P.  to  build  east   of  the  Colorado  river  ;  or,  rather 
will  have  some  changes  made  in  the  bill   you  sent  over.      The  vote  in   the  House  the 
other  day  will  do  much  good  in  helping  Speaker  Kerr  in   making  up  the  railroad  and 
land  committees  in  such  a  way  that  they  will  not  be  likely  to  report  in  favor  of  any  sub- 

14 


210  THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

sidies.  Of  course  the  South  were  not  all  for  Scott's  bill  before  we  commenced  working 
there  ;  but  we  have  done  good  work,  and  I  am  getting  Southern  papers  every  day  from 
the  line  of  his  travels  that  speak  right  out  against  the  Texas  Pacific.  See  clippings  in- 
closed. The  Railroad  Gazette,  in  publishing  the  proceedings  of  the  St.  Louis  conven- 
tion, made  some  mistakes' which  I  have  endeavored  to  correct,  as  you  will  notice  by  copy 
of  letters  sent  to  you.  Nearly  all  the  papers  here  have  taken  favorable  notice  of  it.  I 
send  slips  from  World  and  Tribune.  The  editor's  article  in  the  Railroad  Gazette  I  did 
not  see  until  after  its  publication.  I  have  looked  over  Governor  Irwin's  message  ;  it 
seems  to  be  well  enough,  although  not  just  such  a  one  on  railroad  matters  as  I  expected. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No,  25. ) 

New  York,  March  4,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  February  24,  No.  142,  is  received.  I  have  been  in 
Washington  most  of  the  time  since  Congress  met,  and  you  say  truly  when  you  write  that 
you  think  I  have  had  a  rough  fight  here  this  winter.  The  railroad  committee  of  the 
House  was  set  up  for  Scott,  and  it  has  been  a  very  difficult  matter  to  switch  a  majority 
of  the  committee  away  from  him,  but  I  think  it  has  been  done  ;  but  Scott  is  very  able, 
and  then  he  promises  everything  to  everybody,  which  helps  him  for  the  day  and  in  this 
fight,  and  just  Avhat  he  may  yet  do  I  cannot  say.  *  *  *  And  I  think  it  of  so  much 
importance  that  he  is  not  allowed  to  build  a  road  parallel  to  ours  with  Government  aid 
that  I  shall  endeavor  to  get  our  bill  passed  through  the  Senate  this  winter  if  possible  (and 
the  House,  too).  If  we  only  get  it  through  the  Senate,  and  could  then  get  built  some 
road  in  Arizona  before  Congress  comes  together  next  winter,  I  think  there  would  be  but 
little  doubt  we  would  win  the  fight.  What  do  you  think  of  it?  *  *  * 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  26.) 

New  York,  March  22,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :     *     *     *     I  am  having  a  very  lively  fight  at  Washington,   but 
things  do  not  look  bad. 

Scott  is  making  a  very  dirty  fight,  and  I  shall  try  very  hard  to  pay  him  off,  and  if  I 
do  not  live  to  see  the  grass  growing  over  him  I  shall  be  mistaken. 

I  am  doing  all  I  can  to  demoralize  Scott  in  Texas.      He  has  got  to  have  legislation 
in  that  State  to  extend  time  on  his  land  grant  or  else  it  is  lost  to  him.      *     *     * 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  27.) 

New  York,  May  12,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  Your  letters  of  April  29th  and  May  2d  and  4th,  Nos.  155,  156, 
and  157,  are  received,  with  inclosures  as  therein  stated.  I  am  very  glad  to  learn  that 
you  are  able  to  be  out  again.  Bad  time  for  any  of  the  S.  P.  party  to  be  sick,  as  we  have 
fight  enough  to  go  round  and  give  each  one  all  he  cares  for,  that  is  if  his  wants  in 
that  line  are  anyways  reasonable.  I  sent  Hopkins  an  article  yesterday  cut  from  the 
Commercial  Advertiser;  to-day  I  met  one  of  the  editors,  Norcutt ;  he  told  me  Scott 
paid  for  having  it  published  ;  that  he  would  not  have  let  it  gone  into  the  paper  if  it 
had  been  left  to  him,  etc.  With  this  I  send  slip  from  to-day's  Times.  Just  what  is  to 
come  out  of  this  fight  I  cannot  say,  but  I  expect  to  live  to  see  the  grass  growing  over 
these  fellows  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  we  shall  be  hurt  some.  I  have  just  learned  that  the 
the  slip  from  the  Times  (or  the  matter  contained  therein)  has  gone  to  Europe  by  cable. 
Scott  is  spending  money  to  get  these  things  sent  out,  and  the  fight  will  go  on  for  some 
time,  or  at  least  so  long  as  he  thinks  by  so  doing  he  can  make  us  get  out  of  the  way  of 
his  Texas  and  P.  swindle,  which  I  do  not  propose  to  do.  See  correspondence  with 
Tudge  Bell  of  Texas.  I  wish  you  would  write  on  paper  that  would  allow  of  my  filing 
your  letters.  From  the  memorandum  sent  of  the  work  done  and  to  be  done  on  the 
Tehachapi  tunnels  it  would  seem  as  though  the  rails  ought  to  be  laid  to  the  sgmmit  by 
July  1st.  This  evening's  papers  have  just  come  in  and  they  have  a  long  article  about  the 
petition  presented  to-day  by  A.  A.  Sargent,  calling  for  a  committee  to  investigate  C.  P.  C 
and  F.,  etc. 

Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  211 

(No.  28.) 

New  York,  May  28,  1875. 
Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  20th  is  received,  with  N.  P.  clippings.  I  do  not 
think  Booth  made  many  votes  by  his  Grand  Hotel  speech.  The  Governor  said — Gover- 
nor S — some  good  things  to  the  Chronicle  interviewer  ;  but  I  think  it  unfortunate  that  he 
should  so  closely  connect  the  C.  P.  with  the  S.  P.,  as  that  is  the  only  weapon  our  enemies 
have  to  fight  us  with  in  Congress.  *  *  * 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  29.) 

New  York,  November  15,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  I  had  a  meeting  in  Philadelphia  last  night  with  Tom  Scott.  We 
meet  again  here  to-morrow.  I  do  not  have  my  own  way  altogether,  but  I  think  that 
we  can  agree  upon  some  bill  that  we  can  all  work  for.  We  shall  have  to  pro  rate  on 
through  business  more  than  I  would  like.  And  I  think  there  should  be  a  bridge  com- 
pany organized  (that  we  are  not  known  in)  to  build  over  the  Colorado  river,  at,  say, 
Arrowsbury  or  any  other  point  on  the  river,  then  build  at  the  point  where  the  railroad 
crosses,  under  contract  with  the  railroad  company.  In  this  way  we  could  tax  the 
through  business  on  this  line  if  we  so  desired.  *  *  * 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  30. ) 

New  York,  December  4,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  *  *  *  I  send  copy  of  the  bill,  although  not  altogether  agreed 
to  yet.  You  will  notice  it  allows  of  a  bridge  outside  of  the  railroad  corporation  at  the 
Colorado  river  ;  or,  as  you  will  see,  the  road  from  the  west  goes  to  the  river  and  starts 
from  the  river  to  go  east .;  but  there  must  be  nothing  said  about  this  bridge.  If  there 
should  be  it  would  kill  it,  and  it  is  possible  we  may  need  this  bridge  outside  the  railroad 
company.      *     *     * 

Yours,  &c. , 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

A  BLACKMAIL  BRIDGE. 

New  York,  December  7,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  Your  letters,  Nov.  28  and  29,  Nos.  7,  8  and  9,  have  just  come  to 
hand.  As  to  the  bridge  over  the  Colorado  river,  it  is  a  matter  that  I  care  nothing 
about,  if  you  do  not.  But  in  fixing  up  the  S.  P.  and  T.  and  P.  matter  it  occurred  to  me 
that  we  should  have  to  pro  rate  with  the  T.  and  P. ,  as  the  S.  P.  would  be  over 
mountains  and  through  a  country  where  water  and  fuel  will  be  expensive.  It  occurred 
to  me  that  a  bridge  with  an  arbitrary  would  be  well  to  help  us  to  get  what  we  really 
ought  to  have,  and  protect  our  interests  generally.  As  I  said  before,  if  you  don't  want 
it,  I  don't.      *     *     * 

Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  a  1.) 

Washington,  D.  C. ,  December  20,  1876. 
Friend  Colton  :  I  am  having  the  roughest  fight  with  Scott  that  I  have  ever  had, 
but  I  hope  to  drive  him  into  something  that  we  can  accept.  I  should  not  have  much 
trouble  if  matters  could  have  been  left  as  we  fixed  them  when  yOu  were  here,  but  since 
some  of  our  people  has  convinced  the  public  that  the  S.  P.  is  being  built  by  the  C.  P. , 
and  they  have  raised  the  cry  of  monopoly  against  us,  it  makes  it  very  hard  for  us  ;  but 
such  is  life.  You  must  send  us  considerable  money  by  the  1st  of  January  to  pay  interest  ; 
my  being  away  from  New  York  so  much  of  late  has  prevented  me  from  making  loans 
there,  as  money  has  been  hard  to  get,  and  Fogg  has  not  been  able  to  renew  our  paper 
only  to  a  very  limited  extent,  and  we  shall  have  to  pay  this  month,  with  what  we  have 
paid,  say  $1,800,000.  Then,  in  January,  say  interest  $12,000,  and  bills  payable,  $800,- 
000.  You  must  put  off  your  bills  and  pay-rolls  there  for  two  or  three  months  it  it  is 
necessary.  You  had  better  have  it  telegraphed  as  often  as  you  can  how  you  are  pushing 
on  the  road  toward  Fort  Yuma. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.   P.   HUNTINGTON. 


212  THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

(No.   32.) 
SCOTT    AND   THE   LOBBY. 

New  York,  October  3,  1877. 

Friend  Colton  :  Herewith  I  send  memorandum  of  bills  payable  and  transactions 
in  September.  You  will  notice  the  amount  to  be  paid  this  month  is  very  large,  and  just 
how  much  of  it  can  be  borrowed  here  is  uncertain,  but  much  of  it,  I  hope  ;  but  a  portion 
will  have  to  come  from  the  earnings  of  the  road  in  California. 

Your  letters,  Nos.  12,  13  and  14,  are  received.  I  shall  go  to  Washington  to-morrow 
night  to  see  about  the  Colorado  bridge.  I  think  it  can  be  fixed,  but  Scott  is  doing  his 
very  best.  There  has  been,  I  think,  more  work  done  since  Congress  adjourned  for  the 
T.  and  P.  than  was  ever  done  before  for  any  interest  in  the  whole  history  of  this  country, 
but  if  we  spend  as  much  money  in  laying  rails  east  of  the  Colorado  as  he  spends  on  his 
Washington  lobby,  we  shall,  in  my  opinion,  surely  beat  him.  I  shall  do  all  I  can  here, 
but  I  do  not  feel  as  well  as  I  wish  I  did,  and  somehow  dread  the  coming  fight. 

I  will  endeavor  to  write  you  again  to-morrow. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.    P.    HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  33.) 

New  York,  March  20,  1877. 

Friend  Colton  :  Your  letters  of  March  7th  and  9th,  Nos.  33  and  34  are  received. 
I  notice  what  you  write  in  your  No.  33  relating  to  the  C.  P.  sending  goods  via  Chicago. 
Now,  I  have  no  interest  as  to  the  route  over  which  this  business  travels,  except  it 
takes  the  route  that  will  best  advance  the  whole  interest  of  the  C.  P.,  which  it  seemed  to 
me  would  be  best  done  by  our  sending  a  part  via  St.  Louis  and  a  portion  via  Chicago. 
There  is  considerable  complaint,  which  shows  itself  in  Washington,  because  all  the 
business  goes  through  Chicago  and  none  via  St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati,  and  so  we  have  the 
same  amount  for  the  C.  P.  It  would  seem  best  we  divide  this  business.  And  as  to  the 
time  that  is  made  on  the  northern  line,  I  think  you  would  have  no  trouble  in  getting  the 
southern  lines  to  agree  to  take  it  via  New  Orleans  that  is  now  taken,  and  they  certainly 
would  have  no  trouble  in  filling  the  contract  as  to  the  time. 

Scott  is  at  work,  and  I  think  doing  more  than  ever  before,  preparing  to  put  his  Texas 
Pacific  through  next  winter,  and  possibly  at  the  extra  session  if  there  is  one.  I  have 
little  or  no  fears  of  his  doing  anything  at  the  extra  session,  but  if  he  can  convince  Congress 
that  the  S.  P.  is  controlled  by  the  C.  P  (and  I  think  with  what  aid  he  can  get  from  my 
associates  in  California)  I  believe  he  can  pass  his  bill  to  build  on  the  direct  line  between 
Fort  Yuma  and  San  Diego,  and  I  think  I  know  enough  of  Washington  to  know  how  he 
can  do  it. 

I  have  just  received  telegram  from  Crocker  in  relation  to  daily  mails  east  of  Yuma, 
but  of  that  I  will  write  him. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  34.) 

New  York,  May  17,  1877. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours  of  the  9th,  No.  48,  is  received.  What  you  say  about  our 
stopping  at  Fort  Yuma  is  well,  and  would  be  almost  conclusive  if  the  S.  P.  was  not  owned 
and  controlled  by  the  C.  P.  ;  but  when  we  tell  Congress  we  are  willing  to  build  this 
road  the  answer  is  always  the  same.  Of  course  you  are  to  protect  the  Central,  but  what 
the  country  wants  is  a  competing  road.  Now,  many  members  of  Congress  believe  all  this 
stuff,  and  others  talk  it  for  reasons  that  I  need  not  mention  here,  but,  if  they  are  not 
convinced,  think  the  open  highway  will  satisfy  their  constituents  that  they  were  working 
for  the  good  of  the  whole  country.  When  the  Texas  and  P.  Co.  were  asking  aid  to  go 
through  the  San  Gorgonio  Pass,  one  argument  was  :  We  have  built  a  road  there  with  our 
own  money.  Will  Congress  furnish  the  means  for  Colonel  Scott  to  go  on  and  destroy 
property  that  we  have  in  good  faith  located?  No  one  would  do  that.  But  their  propo- 
sition now  is  to  build  direct  to  San  Diego  under  the  cry  of  an  open  highway  for  the 
people.  I  do  not  believe  they  can  get  the  aid  from  the  government  necessary  to  do  it, 
but  they  will  not  be  prevented  from  doing  it  because  the  Central  Pacific  will  do  it  without 
aid,  but  because  the  country  is  so  generally  committed  against  any  subsidy,  or  because 
there  is  some  interest  fairly  invested  that  would  be  destroyed  by  the  building  the  open 
highway. 

We  certainly  are  not  prepared  to  build  east  of  the  Colorado  river  this  season.      If  I 
have  a  clear  view  of  what  I  think  ought  to  be  done  I  will  write  you. 
,      Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.        s  213 

(No.  35-) 

New  York,  October  5,  1877. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours,  No.  15,  is  received.  I  notice  your  remarks  on  our  matters 
in  California.  I  have  no  doubt  there  is  many  things  to  annoy  you.  The  dispatches 
about  crossing  the  Colorado  come  over  very  well.  I  think  Gould  has  had  as  much  to 
do  with  stopping  us  on  the  bridge  as  Scott  has,  although  I  have  had  no  reason  for  so 
thinking  up  to  this  morning  (see  clip  from  Tribune)  except  Jim  Wilson,  of  Iowa,  is  their 
man  and  has  much  influence  with  McCreary. 

Secretary  of  War  Wilson  was  in  Washington  when  the  first  order  went  out  to  stop 
work  on  the  bridge,  and  Gould  came  in  twice  and  Dillon  once  to  tell  me  that  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  had  his  war  paint  on,  and  was  to  attack  us  in  his  message,  etc.  I 
thought  at  the  time  they  were  trying  to  cover  up  something,  and  rather  supposed  it  was 
to  check  us  on  the  S.  P. 

I  met  George  M.  Pullman  last  night.  He  told  me  that  he  met  General  Dodge  a  few 
days  since,  and  that  D.  told  him  that  Gould  said  to  him  (D.)  that  he  would  build  as  fast 
from  Salt  Lake  west  as  we  built  east  of  the  Colorado.  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  you 
in  California  have  never  fully  realized  how  much  of  a  menace  to  the  U.  P.  was  the  build- 
ing of  the  S.  P.  east  from  Yuma,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  we  want  to  so  fix  the  S.  P.  that 
the  U.  P.  interest  will  be  just  as  safe  as  the  C.  P.  Just  how  to  do  it  is  not  so  clear,  but  I 
am  inclined  to  think  we  shall  have  to  give  the  U.  P.  a  one-half  interest  in  all  the  road 
east  of  Yuma,  or  say  ten  twenty-seconds  of  the  whole  road,  and  the  latter  I  think  they 
would  not  care  to  do  and  give  us  what  the  stock  has  fairly  cost  us,  which  you  will  recol- 
lect, as  near  as  we  could  get  at  it,  was  20  per  cent.;  but  this  is  an  important  matter  and 
has  got  to  be  met,  as  those  great  interests  are  only  valuable  so  long  as  they  can  be  worked 
in  harmony.  Talk  this  matter  over  and  let  me  have  your  views. 
Yours,  trulv, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

THE   PRESIDENT   CROSS. 

No.  361.  ]  New  York,  October  10,  1877. 

Friend  Colton:  Yours  of  September  28th  is  received,  and  its  contents  carefully 
noted.  I  shall  do  all  I  can,  but  it  is  very  difficult  to  keep  any  money;  but  I  shall  do  all 
I  can. 

I  went  to  Washington  night  before  last  and  returned  last  night.  I  think  I  have  the 
bridge  question  settled  for  the  present.  I  found  it  harder  to  do  than  I  expected.  The 
Secretary  of  War  told  me  that  they  had  had  it  up  in  two  Cabinet  meetings  and  had  con- 
cluded not  to  do  anything,  as  Congress  would  come  together  next  week;  but  I  got  him 
out  of  that  idea  in  about  twenty  minutes.  I  then  saw  three  others  of  the  Cabinet;  then 
I  went  and  saw  the  President.  He  was  a  little  cross  at  first;  said  we  had  defied  the 
Government,  &c.  ;  but  I  soon  got  him  out  of  that  belief.  I  said  to  him  that^we  were 
very  much  in  earnest  about  building  the  S.  P.  I  said  to  him  that  I  had  written  out  after 
we  were  given  the  right  to  go  on  and  complete  the  bridge,  after  being  once  stopped,  that 
they  (you)  had  better  push  the  work  night  and  day,  as  we  had  been  stopped  once  with- 
out any  reason  known  to  us,  and  that  we  might  be  again,  and  that  I  guessed  the  boys 
very  likely  quit  work  and  went  to  supper,  and  the  military  quit  at  the  same  time  and  got 
their  supper  and  went  to  bed,  supposing  the  workmen  would  do  the  same,  but  instead  of 
going  to  bed  went  back  and  laid  the  track  across  the  bridge,  so  as  to  be  sure  and  have  it 
so  trams  would  cross  before  they  received  any  order  to  quit.  The  President  laughed 
heartily  at  that,  and  said  he  guessed  we  meant  business.  He  then  said,  "  What  do  you 
propose  to  do  if  we  let  you  run  over  the  bridge  ?  "  I  said,  "Push  the  road  right  on 
through  Arizona.  "  He  said,  "Will  you  do  that?  If  you  will,  that  will  suit  me  first- 
rate.  " 

Now,  I  think  you  had  better  spend  a  little  money  building  east  from  Yuma  and 
have  it  telegraphed  over  as  often  as  you  can;  it  will  do  us  much  good  here. 

I  would  like  to  hear  now  and  then  how  the  lone  coal  is  being  used. 

I  have  telegraphed  to  Crocker  to  have  it  understood  there  that  the  draw  was  closed 
by  pressure  from  the  people  of  Arizona,  and  not  saying  we  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  36.) 

HAYES'    FALSE   REPORT   DECLINED. 

New  York,  October  15,  1877. 

Friend  Colton  :  *  *  *  Very  likely  such  a  report  as  Mr.  H.  would  give  us 
would  be  worth  the  price  he  asks  ;  but  as  the  crops  are  short  this  year  in  California,  and 


214  THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

as  what  we  might  call  an  off-year  with  us,  I  am  disposed  to  think  we  had  better  let  it 
pass  for  this  year. 

I  do  not  think  General  Sherman  telegraphed  to  any  one  on  this  side  about  the  bridge 
at  Yuma. 

General  McDowell  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  recommending  that  the  bridge  be 
put  back  just  as  it  was  when  orders  were  given  us  to  stop.  I  wish  you  would  get  a  strong 
letter  from  General  Sherman  that  the  bridge  is  in  the  right  place,  harms  no  one,  but  is  of 
very  great  benefit  to  the  military,  as  well  as  all  the  interests  in  Arizona  and  Northern 
Mexico,  &c.  We  may  need  it,  as  I  think  it  very  likely  Scott  may  try  to  get  a  resolution 
through  Congress  to  stop  our  building  in  Arizona,  and  perhaps  to  stop  our  crossing  the 
bridge.  I  send  with  this  a  clip  from  to-day's  Times.  It  will  not  hurt  us,  although  you 
will  notice  it  has  its  hit  at  us. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

(No.  37.) 

New  York,  June  3,  1878. 

Friend  Colton  :  Yours  (Nos.  89  and  90)  are  received.  As  to  rails  to  lay  twenty- 
two  miles  on  west  side  of  Sacramento  River,  I  wrote  Stanford  a  few  days  since.  Could 
not  get  rails.  I  notice  what  you  say  about  sale  of  land  on  account  of  Central  Pacific  ; 
also  about  building  any  more  road. 

I  quite  agree  with  you  in  the  main  ;  but  all  the  reasons  that  ever  existed  why  we 
should  build  east  of  Yuma  now  exist.  Only  the  one  reason  why  we  should  not,  viz.,  not 
get  the  money,  prevents  me  from  urging  the  extension  of  that  line.  I  put  (something  ?) 
in  the  omnibus  bill  to  kill  the  T.  and  P.,  and  I  think  it  will  do  it.  I  have  received 
three  telegrams  to  come  to  Washington  to-night.  I  go. 
Yours,  truly, 

C.  P.  HUNTINGTON. 

These  letters  tell  the  story  plainly  of  the  hostile  position  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
toward  the  Texas  Pacific  during  all  these  years,  and  that  it  neither  had  or  claimed  any 
rights  east  of  Yuma.  But  its  grasping  character  was  exhibited  at  the  first  opportunity, 
having  resolved  to  build  east. 

At  Yuma  only  one  desirable  location  for  a  bridge  over  the  Colorado  was  found. 
This  the  Southern  Pacific  desire  to  appropriate,  anticipating,  what  afterward  occurred, 
that  the  Texas  Pacific  would  attempt  precisely  the  same  thing. 

This  point  was  in  the  military  reservation,  and  of  course  could  not  be  legally  con- 
demned or  appropriated  under  its  right-of-way  act,  as  that  did  not  extend  it  any  rights 
on  military  reservations. 

In  October,  1876,  the  Texas  Pacific  applied  to  the  military  authorities  at  Yuma  for 
leave  to  break  ground  on  the  reservation  for  the  crossing  of  the  river.  This  permission 
was  granted,  but  in  November  following  it  was  revoked. 

In  April,  1877,  the  Southern  Pacific  was  given  permission  to  lay  its  track  pro- 
visionally through  a  corner  of  the  reservation,  and  the  open  contest  between  these  two 
corporations  began. 

The  details,  as  to  this  reservation,  are  given  in  Ex.  Doc.  33,  2d  session,  45th  Con- 
gress, in  full. 

It  is  enough  to  state  here  that  the  Southern  Pacific  was  successful,  under  the  leave  to 
cross  "  temporarily  a  portion  of  the  reservation,"  in  not  only  building  its  permanent  rail- 
road across  it,  but  in  building  a  permanent  railroad,  and,  through  its  construction 
company,  a  toll  bridge  over  the  river,  which  enables  them  to  do  as  proposed  in  letters 
No.  29,  30,  "  to  tax  the  through  business  of  the  country.'''' 

This  in  utter  defiance  of  the  War  Department,  against  the  positive  orders  of  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

General  McDowell  wrote,  October  3,  1877  :  "The  post  commander  was  powerless, 
all  the  troops  having  been  withdrawn  to  the  field.  "  Nor  has  it  yet  ever  procured  the 
consent  of  the  Government  to  occupy  this  reservation  ;  it  has  been  a  continual  trespasser 
to  this  day. 

Failing  to  procure  authority  from  Congress  to  build  east  of  Yuma,  the  Southern  Pacific 
procured  charters  from  the  Territorial  legislatures  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  to  proceed 
and  build  through  those  Territories  over  the  line  selected  by  the  Texas  Pacific  ;  and  on 
commencing  its  work  under  these  charters,  the  Texas  Pacific  invoked  the  aid  of  the 
judiciary.  It  filed  a  bill  for  an  injunction  and  a  receiver  as  to  the  improvements  of  the 
Southern  Pacific,  and  the  relief  prayed  was  given  ;  but  the  Southern  Pacific  continued  its 
work,  paying  no  attention  to  the  order,  and  the  litigation  continued  as  pending  until 
settled  by  a  decree,  entered  at  the  March  term,  1882,  of  the  court,  not  on  a  judicial 
investigation,  but  by  agreement  of  all  the  parties . 


THE"  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  215 

On  the  question  as  to  the  relation  of  these  two  companies  during  all  the  years  the  two 
lines  were  being  constructed,  your  committee  do  not  find  a  single  act  performed  by  either 
that  was  not  hostile  in  its  character  as  to  the  other. 

Again,  on  the  question  as  to  whether  the  Southern  Pacific  had  either  the  intention  of 
asking  or  the  hope  or  expectation  of  receiving  a  dollar  of  aid  or  an  acre  of  land,  we  find 
that  in  the  Forty-fifth  and  Forty-sixth  Congresses,  as  against  the  request  of  Mr.  Scott  for 
guarantee  to  his  road,  statement  after  statement  and  argument  after  argument  was  made 
by  the  representatives  of  the  Southern  Pacific  that  aid  of  any  character  was  entirely 
useless  and  an  unjustifiable  expenditure  of  the  public  money  and  property. 

It  was  argued  by  them  that  their  company  was  practically  demonstrating  the  non- 
necessity of  Governmental  aid  to  the  enterprise  of  building  a  railroad  along  the  thirty- 
second  parallel  by  building  its  own  there  and  without  aid,  which  it  neither  asked  nor 
desired. 

Mr.  Huntington,  in  1878,  wrote  : 

"If  it  were  once  understood  that  no  subsidies  would  hereafter  be  granted  by  Con- 
gress, the  incomplete  gap  (between  Fort  Worth,  the  western  terminus  of  the  Texas 
Pacific  then,  and  Yuma)  would  be  filled  within  five  years  by  private  capital  alone,  with- 
out asking  or  committing  in  any  way  the  national  revenues  to  the  work." 

Before  the  Senate  committee,  in  1878,  he  said : 

"  We  are  ready  to  construct  right  along,  and  willing  to  provide  an  outlet  to  the  East 
for  ourselves  without  cost  to  the  Government." 

And  again  : 

"The  question  before  you  is  whether  you  will  give  the  Texas  Pacific  a  guarantee  of 
nearly  forty  millions  of  bonds  for  building  a  road,  200  miles  of  which  is  useless,  and  600 
miles  of  which  we  offer  to  build  without  aid." 

Scores  of  men  in  Washington  to-day  recall  the  earnest  statements  of  Mr.  Huntington, 
made  during  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  in  opposition  to  the  Texas 
Pacific,  that  the  Southern  Pacific  could  and  would  build  the  road  without  a  dollar  of  aid 
or  an  acre  of  land,  if  the  Texas  Pacific  was  kept  out  of  the  way. 

In  the  current  daily  papers  at  this  date  appears  a  letter  from  ex-Senator  Gordon, 
explanatory  of  his  course  in  supporting  the  Southern  Pacific  plan  of  opposing  Scott,  which 
your  committee  deem  worth  notice.      Among  other  things  he  says  : 

"  Mr.  Scott  was  asking  a  guarantee  on  about  fifty  millions  of  bonds.  Mr.  Huntington, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  asking  nothing  of  Congress,  either  by  way  of  indorsement  of  his 
bonds  or  as  subsidy  in  lands.  He  asked  only  to  be  let  alone  and  allowed  to  build  the 
road  on  the  same  general  line,  and  was  actually  constructing  it  without  any  Government 
aid.  *  *  *  I  opposed  the  Scott  bill  and  favored  the  Huntington  plan.  He  declared 
he  could  and  would  build  the  road  without  a  dollar  of  Government  aid  or  subsidy.  He 
did  it.  He  declared  he  would  make  the  eastern  terminus  of  his  lines  southern  ports  and 
only  southern  ports.      He  has  done  it.  " 

Resuming  the  history  of  the  case  :  Failing  to  get  the  subsidy  desired,  the  affairs  of 
the  Texas  Pacific  remained  in  statu  quo  for  a  time,  the  Southern  Pacific  prosecuting  the 
work  of  building  its  road  vigorously.  When  Mr.  Jay  Gould  took  charge  of  the  Texas 
Pacific  affairs  work  was  rapidly  done  on  the  line  toward  the  west  in  Texas,  so  that  in 
November,  1 88 1,  the  Texas  Pacific  had  reached  Sierra  Blanca,  Tex. ,  about  91  miles  east 
of  El  Paso,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  fully  completed  to  within  a  few  miles  of  that  point. 

On  the  26th  of  November,  1881,  an  agreement  was  made  between  Mr.  Huntington 
and  Mr.  Gould,  representing  the  two  corporations,  of  which  this  is  an  abstract  : 

It  is  made  between  C.P.Huntington  on  one  side,  representing  the  Southern  Pacific 
and  the  Galveston,  Harrisburg  and  San  Antonio  roads  and  their  connections  eastward 
as  far  as  New  Orleans,  and  Jay  Gould  on  the  other  side,  representing  the  Texas  and 
Pacific,  including  its  New  Orleans  connection,  the  Iron  Mountain,  the  International, 
Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas,  and  Missouri  Pacific  Companies.  It  provides 
that  the  tracks  of  the  two  systems  shall  be  joined  when  they  meet  100  miles  or 
thereabouts  east  of  El  Paso,  and  both  parties  are  to  use  the  portion  between  the  junction 
and  El  Paso  on  equal  terms,  the  Texas  and  Pacific  reserving  the  right  to  run  its  own 
trains  into  El  Paso  on  paying  half  cost  of  maintenance,  taxes  and  interest  on  halt  cost  of 
construction,  $10,000  per  mile.  Through  business  is  to  be  done  on  a  pro  rata  basis  by 
both  companies,  and  this  stands  all  the  way  to  San  Diego,  Los  Angeles  and  San 
Francisco,  although  the  franchise  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific  was  by  its  charter  limited  to  ■ 
San  Diego  ;  and  rates  are  to  be  as  low  between  competitive  points  as  by  any  other 
transcontinental  routes.  No  discrimination  is  to  be  made  by  the  Gould  roads  for  or 
against  any  of  the  termini  on  the  Mississippi  or  Gulf,  either  as  to  rates,  time,  or  other- 
wise, or  among  the  railroad  lines  eastward  thereof,  but  east-bound  unconsigned 
business  for  points  reached  by  them  in  Northern  Texas,  Arkansas  and  Missouri  is  to  be 
delivered  to  them  at  El  Paso  or  the  junction,  as  the  case  may  be.      The   agreement  does 


216  THE  OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

not  prevent  or  interfere  with  the  completion  of  the  Huntington  road  through  Texas  via 
San  Antonio  and  Houston,  but  provides  that  after  its  completion  the  New  Orleans  and 
seaboard  business  thereof  shall  be  divided  equally  between  the  two  lines  and  their 
connection,  the  Huntington  road  from  Houston  to  New  Orleans  being  accorded  the 
privilege  "of  using  ioo  miles  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific  nearest  to  New  Orleans  when 
necessary  on  the  above  terms.  The  two  systems  of  roads  intersect  and  cross  each  other 
at  Houston,  and  between  this  point  and  Galveston  they  use  the  Galveston  road,  running 
through  trains  if  necessary.  The  through  business  to  and  from  El  Paso  and  the  Pacific 
will  be  divided  on  the  basis  of  one-third  to  the  Texas  and  Pacific  and  its  connections, 
and  two  thirds  of  the  line  via  San  Antonio,  that  being  the  shortest  line. 

In  consideration  for  the  privileges  of  using  jointly  the  road  into  El  Paso,  and  of  a 
perpetual  privilege  in  Los  Angeles  and  San  Francisco,  as  well  as  San  Diego,  equal  to 
the  most  favored,  the  Texas  and  Pacific  has  relinquished  its  claim  to  the  land  grant, 
right  of  way,  and  franchises  west  of  El  Paso  to  the  Southern  Pacific  companies.  The 
Texas  and  Pacific  engages  not  to  extend  its  road  west  of  El  Paso  so  long  as  the  cove- 
nants with  the  Southern  Pacific  are  observed,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  agrees  not  to 
parallel  the  Texas  and  Pacific  east  of  El  Paso  or  either  of  the  roads  mentioned,  in 
Texas,  Arkansas,  or  Missouri.  The  usual  provision  is  made  for  arbitration  between  any. 
of  the  parties  for  the  settlement  of  disputes,  and  the  respective  superintendents  are  to 
carry  out  the  details  of  the  arrangements  as  to  interchange  of  traffic  and  the  rates  of 
compensation. 

The  Texas  Pacific  relinquishes  and  will  convey  to  the  Southern  Pacific  its  claim  to 
this  land  grant,  right  of  way,  and  franchises  west  of  El  Paso. 

Pursuant  to  this  contract  a  deed  was  executed  by  the  Texas  Pacific  on  January  18, 
1882,  to  the  Southern  Pacific,  purporting  to  convey  all  the  grantor  had  or  could  take 
west  of  El  Paso  ;  and  in  March,  1882,  in  the  district  court  of  the  third  judicial  district  of 
New  Mexico,  the  bill  of  the  Texas  Pacific,  filed  and  pending  to  prevent  the  Southern 
Pacific  from  building  within  the  land  grant  to  the  Texas  Pacific,  was  amended  so  as  to 
make  the  Central  Pacific  a  party  to  the  litigation  ;  and  by  agreement  of  all  the  parties  a 
decree  was  entered  on  stipulation  validating  the  agreement  of  November,  1881,  and  the 
deed  of  January  18,  1882,  and  especially  that  the  road  named  in  the  decree  shall  be 
operated  in  perpetuity  as  a  single  continuous  line. 

Another  important  fact  is  that  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company  now  controls 
and  operates  all  these  roads  from  El  Paso  west,  under  leases  from  the  nominal  corpora- 
tions owning  them  ;  it  paying  for  the  Southern  Pacific  of  California,  $250  per  mile  per 
month  ;  for  the  Southern  Pacific  of  Arizona,  $135  per  mile  per  month  and  taxes  ;  for  the 
Southern  Pacific  of  New  Mexico,  the  same  rent ;  for  the  bridges  over  the  Colorado  and 
Rio  Grande,  $1,000  per  month  each  ;  and  for  the  Los  Angeles  and  San  Diego,  $100  per 
mile  per  month  and  taxes.  These  rents  and  all  operating  expense  of  the  line  are  included 
in  the  expense  account  of  the  Central  Pacific. 

From  the  foregoing  facts,  none  of  which  were  disputed,  even  before  your  committee, 
we  draw  these  conclusions,  viz  : 

That  the  Southern  Pacific  was  a  hostile  enterprise  to  the  Texas  Pacific  until  all  its 
road  had  been  constructed  to  Sierra  Blanca,  Tex.,  and  until  the  contract  of  November, 
1 88 1,  was  consummated. 

That  it  shrank  from  nothing  that  tended  to  defeat  the  work  the  Texas  Pacific  was 
engaged  in,  viz.,  the  construction  of  a  competing  through  line  of  railroad  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

That  while  the  Southern  Pacific  was  nominally  an  independent  corporation,  it  was  in 
fact  practically  the  Central  Pacific. 

That  the  Southern  Pacific  was  built  with  the  money  of  the  Central  Pacific  outside  of 
the  securities  based  upon  it,  and  is  operated  and  controlled  by  it. 

That  so  far  as  Congress  is  concerned,  the  Southern  Pacific  never  had  any  rights  east 
of  Yuma,  upon  which  it  could  base  a  claim  against  the  Government,  either  legal  or 
equitable. 

That  the  Southern  Pacific  built  its  road  expressly  without  the  intention,  expectation 
or  hope  of  receiving  a  dollar  of  aid  or  an  acre  of  land  therefor  from  the  Government. 

That  by  its  action  it  aided  in  defeating  the  building  of  the  road  contemplated  by 
Congress. 

That  no  attention  has  ever  been  paid  by  it  toward  making  San  Diego  a  terminal 
point,  but,  on  the  contrary,  so  far  as  either  of  these  companies  is  concerned,  there  is  not 
a  railroad  within  upward  of  one  hundred  miles  of  that  place. 

That,  as  suggested  in  letter  No.  29  above,  in  order  "to  tax  the  through  business  on 
the  line,"  two  bridge  companies  have  been  organized,  one  owning  the  bridge  over  the 
Rio  Grande  and  the  other  the  bridge  over  the  Colorado. 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  217 

That,  in  connection  with  the  facts  in  this  report  presented,  common  notoriety  shows 
that  the  transcontinental  transportation  question  now  stands  in  this  condition: 

The  next  route  north  of  this,  the  Atlantic 'and  Pacific,  is  controlled  by  the  Central 
Pacific  west  of  the  Colarado  and  by  Mr.  Gould  east  of  it. 

The  Central  Pacific  and  the  Union  Pacific,  with  Mr.  Gould's  connections  east  of 
Omaha,  control  the  middle  route. 

By  subsidizing  the  Pacific  Mail,  the  Central  Pacific  keeps  the  water  route  under 
control. 

The  Northern  Pacific  is  not  only  in  a  "pool"  with  the  Central,  but  an  agreement  has 
been  made  between  them  whereby  the  territory  of  the  great  Northwest  has  been  divided 
between  them  as  to  transportation,  as  though  ownership  of  the  country  followed  building 
of  railroads  into  it,  subject  to  which  practical  assertion  of  ownership  the  transportation  of 
freight  for  the  entire  Pacific  coast  is  under  the  control  of  the  few  men  who  adopt  as  their 
rule  for  charges  "all  the  traffic  will  bear,"  and  who  have  introduced,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  common  carriage  and  in  the  only  place  in  the  civilized  world,  the  practice 
of  "special  contracts,"  whereby  a  citizen  of  the  republic,  to  avail  himself  of  the 
necessary  benefits  of  the  improved  methods  of  transportation  by  steam  and  rail  equally 
with  those  these  men  choose  to  favor  with  reasonable  rates  of  charges,  must  contract  that 
he  will  not  deal  in  the  property  freighted  with  any  but  those  having  like  contracts  with 
himself  and  giving  the  managers  of  these  corporations  the  right  of  espionage  over  their 
books  and  papers,  to  ascertain  the  details  of  their  business  and  whether  such  contract  has 
been  violated. 

These  are  the  men  who  ask  on  grounds  of  equity,  that  this  vast  grant  of  land,  an 
empire  in  area,  and  estimated  by  themselves  at  forty  millions  of  dollars  in  value,  shall 
be  given  them. 

Your  committee  has  had  no  difficulty  in  disposing  of  the  claim  on  the  basis  of  the 
' '  equity." 

Nor  have  we  been  perplexed  in  solving  the  question  as  to  the  legal  right  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  to  this  grant. 

As  has  been  stated,  we  have  had  the  benefit  of  legal  argument  by  some  of  the  most 
eminent  counsel  in  the  land,  and  the  claim  by  this  company  to  the  grant  on  legal  grounds 
may  be  stated  in  this  way  : 

By  the  act  making  the  grant  the  title  to  the  land  passed  to  the  Texas  Pacific — the  act 
was  a  grant  in  firesenti,  with  a  condition  subsequent. 

The  Texas  Pacific,  thus  being  vested  with  the  legal  title,  although  subject  to  the  con- 
dition subsequent,  which  contained,  among  other  things,  the  building  of  the  road  to  San 
Diego  and  the  completing  the  whole  line  by  May  2d,  1882,  and  that  there  should  be 
no  consolidation  with  any  competing  line,  yet  the  legal  title  was  an  assignable  interest 
which  could  be  conveyed,  and  that  by  the  deed  made  by  the  Texas  Pacific  January  18, 1882, 
to  the  Southern  Pacific,  it  became  vested  with  the  legal  title  to  all  the  land,  and  because 
the  Congress  did  not,  in  making  the  grant  and  coupling  with  it  a  condition  subsequent,  in 
express  terms  reserve  to  itself  the  power  to  declare  the  grant  forfeited  for  breach  of  the 
condition  if  it  should  not  be  complied  with,  therefore  no  right  of  forfeiture  exists,  and  the 
hands  of  Congress  are  tied  and  the  Government  is  powerless  to  resume  the  grant  by  reason 
of  such  omission. 

In  other  words,  generally  stated,  the  distinguished  counsel  for  the  company  declares 
that  in  law  the  power  to  declare  a  forfeiture  of  a  grant  made  on  condition  subsequent 
for  breach  of  the  condition  must  be  reserved  to  the  grantor  by  express  terms  in  the  act 
making  the  grant,  or  it  does  not  exist. 

No  authority  was  produced  to  the  committee  except  the  statement  of  the  attorneys 
asserting  this  extraordinary  doctrine  in  support  of  it  ;  but  the  interests  being  so  great, 
we  have  examined  the  books  on  the  question,  and  are  not  able  to  find  a  single  authority 
in  support  of  the  proposition,  and  we  believe  none  can  be  found. 

On  the  contrary,  Washburn  on  Real  Property,  vol.  2,  3d  ed.,  p.  15,  asserts  the  rule 
to  be — 

"Where  the  condition  of  a  grant  is  express  there  is  no  need  of  reserving  a  right  of 
entry  for  a  breach  thereof  in  order  to  enable  the  grantor  to  avail  himself  of  it." 

See  also  Jackson  vs.  Allen,  3  Cowan,  220  ;  Gray  vs.  Blanchard,  8  Pick.,  284; 
Littleton,  sec.  331. 

Indeed,  all  the  decided  cases  we  can  find,  as  well  as  the  text-books,  are  in  harmony 
and  to  the  same  effect  ;  so  we  do  not  present  argument  upon  it  here. 

Counsel  also  urge  that,  under  the  law,  a  forfeiture  of  a  grant  is  purely  a  judicial 
question  ;  one  for  the  courts  alone,  and  that  Congress  has  no  power  in  the  matter. 

We  are  of  different  opinion.  It  seems  perfectly  clear  to  this  committee  that  a  declara- 
tion of  forfeiture  is  only  the  act  of  the  grantor,  asserting  his  right  to  assume  the  grant,  to 
be  exercised  at  his  option,  terminating  an  estate  for  breach  of  the  condition  on  which  it  is 


218  THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES. 

granted.  The  power  rests  with  him  ;  it  is  at  his  option  whether  he  will  exercise  it  or 
not  ;  purely  a  matter  of  discretion,  with  the,  exercise  of  which  the  courts  have  nothing 
to  do,  and  until  it  is  exercised  there  is  nothing  on  which  the  court  can  act. 

When  forfeiture  is  declared  and  resumption  of  ownership  asserted  by  the  grantor, 
then  the  court  may  be  invoked  to  declare  whether  the  right  existed  or  whether  it  had 
been  effectively  exercised  ;  but  the  question  of  forfeiture  is  with  the  grantor,  personal  or 
legislative,  as  the  grant  is  private  or  public,  and  the  judiciary  has  no  jurisdiction  what- 
ever until  after  the  grantor  has  acted  to  assert  his  or  its  right  to  declare  the  forfeiture, 
and  then  the  grantee  may  invoke  the  judiciary. 

To  us  this  is  too  clear  to  be  regarded  as  debatable  or  needing  elaboration. 

But  the  counsel  insisted  also  that  if  the  committee  should  declare  that  the  right  to 
declare  a  forfeiture  did  exist,  then  the  Southern  Pacific  had  the  right  to  the  grant  on  the 
ground  that  it  had  substantially  complied  with  the  requirements  of  the  act  as  they  should 
have  been  performed  by  the  Texas  Pacific  in  the  building  of  a  road  to  the  Pacific  coast ; 
that  while  the  Southern  Pacific  was  practically  a  volunteer  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
work,  not  having  authority  from  Congress  to  undertake  and  prosecute  the  work,  yet 
having  built  a  railroad  along  substantially  the  same  line  which  the  Texas  Pacific  would 
have  followed,  and  having  given  the  country,  by  the  building  and  the  contract  of 
November,  1881,  with  the  Texas  Pacific,  a  line  of  railroad  to  San  Francisco,  and  the 
Texas  Pacific  being  satisfied,  the  Government  is  bound  to  be,  and  give  them  the  grant. 
And  in  the  argument  used — the  illustration  of  a  reward  offered  for  lost  goods,  the  finder 
is  always  a  volunteer  and  entitled  to  the  reward  ;  that  it  is  immaterial  to  the  loser  who 
finds  and  restores  his  goods — they  evade  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  San  Diego 
being  made  a  terminal  point,  as  well  as  that  that  city  has  been  avoided  and  no  road 
located  or  built  to  it  by  them,  or  in  which  they  are  interested. 

But  waiving  the  question  of  full  performance,  has  this  last  claim  a  basis  in  the  law  ? 

Before  the  claimant  company  can  be  held  to  be  entitled  to  this  grant  it  must  be  found 
that  the  conditions  of  the  grant  have  all  been  complied  with  by  it  or  its  grantor  ;  that  it 
is  the  legal  "  successor  and  assign  "  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific,  and  also  that  such  succes- 
sion is  not  the  result  of  a  combination  or  consolidation  with  the  Texas  and  Pacific  "by 
rival  or  and  competing  through  line  of  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  " 

Neither  of  these  propositions  can  be  held  in  favor  of  the  claimant  here.  The  Southern 
Pacific  is  not  the  "successor  and  assign  "  of  the  Texas  Pacific.  These  words  have  a  well- 
defined  significance,  and  when  used  in  connection  with  a  corporation,  sole  or  aggregate, 
have  invariably  been  held  to  be  words  of  limitation,  like  the  word  "heirs"  in  a  convey- 
ance to  an  individual. 

The  successors  of  a  corporation  correspond  to  the  heirs  of  a  natural  person.  (Bur- 
rill's  Law  Diet.,  title  Successors;  Bouvier's  Law  Diet.;  Angell  &  Ames,  Corp.,  sec. 
192  ;  2  Kernaw  Rep.,    129.) 

We  confidently  assert  that  not  a  case  can  be  found  (except  the  Attorney -General's 
opinion  in  the  N.  O. ,  B.  R.  and  V.  case)  where  the  words  "successors  and  assigns  "  are 
used  as  applied  to  a  corporation,  when  that  body  simply  succeeds  by  purchase  or  contract 
to  a  part  or  all  of  the  assets  of  another  corporation,  but  not  including  its  franchise  or  right 
to  exist  as  a  corporate  body.     NQ_construction  is  better  settled  in  the  law. 

The  Southern  Pacific  simply  asserts  a  right  under  a  deed  from  the  Texas  Pacific  as 
grantee  of  what  is  assumed  by  both  to  be  part  of  the  assets  of  the  Texas  Pacific,  but  the 
granting  corporation,  the  Texas  Pacific  Company,  still  exists  and  remains,  with  all  the 
vitality  and  activity  it  ever  possessed  as  an  artificial  creature,  losing  none  of  its  identity, 
although  by  this  contract  it  attempts  to  divest  itself  of  part  of  its  powers  and  a  portion  of 
its  tangible  assets.  But  the  Southern  Pacific  is  simply  the  vendee  or  grantee  of  the  Texas 
Pacific  as  to  the  items  named  ;  this  and  nothing  more.  The  Texas  Pacific  cannot  so 
exist  and  at  the  same  time  have  an  existing  "  successor.  "  In  a  case  like  this  a  very  clear 
distinction  is  to  be  taken  between  legally  succeeding  to  a  portion  of  a  property  of  a  cor- 
poration as  vendee  or  grantee  and  being  the  legal  "  successor"  to  the  corporation  itself. 
Mere  privity  by  contract  alone  will  create  the  first,  but  creation  or  selection  by  public 
authority  and  an  entire  legal  substitution  of  person  is  necessary  in  the  latter  case.  In  this 
case  Congress  passed  the  act  for  the  express  and  avowed  purpose  of  causing  the  construc- 
tion of  a  short  and  competitive  route  along  the  thirty-second  parallel  from  the  Missis- 
sippi to  San  Diego  Bay.  The  points  which  were  to  be  connected,  as  well  as  the  corpora- 
tion which  should  perform  the  \^  ork  and  be  the  recipient  of  the  bounty  of  the  government 
for  the  performance  of  the  work,  were  all  determined  by  Congress  and  expressly  named. 

The  position  of  the  transcontinental  line.  Central  and  Union  Pacific,  was  well  under- 
stood by  the  people  and  their  representatives  in  Congress  then,  and  too  recent  now  to 
require  a  restatement.  Railway  communication  between  the  oceans  was  an  absolute 
necessity,  but  the  extortions  and  discriminations  of  the  Central  and  Union  Pacific  (and 
apparently  beyond  the  power  of  their  creator  to  prevent)  caused  an  urgent  demand  on 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  219 

the  part  of  the  people  for  another  and  a  competitive  route  across  the  continent.  To  pro- 
vide this  the  act  of  1871,  attempted  ;  the  terminal  points  were  fixed  ;  the  bay  of  San 
Diego  named  as  a  western  terminus  of  this  to  be  grand  line,  and  work  to  be  begun 
simultaneously  at  either  end  and  rapidly  prosecuted.  San  Francisco  was  by  section  23 
to  be  connected  with  the  new  road  only  ;  not  to  be  a  terminal  point  as  it  now  is.  The 
road  was  contempleted  to  the  ocean  at  San  Diego,  with  a  branch  to  San  Francisco.  This 
is  clearly  a  substantial  requirement. 

In  every  section  of  the  act  clearly  appears  the  expressed  intention  that  the  Texas 
Pacific  Company  shall  prosecute  the  work.  This  company  is  organized,  and  for  the 
clearly  expressed  purpose,  as  stated  ;  this  company  may  purchase  stock  of  other  com- 
panies, or  may  consolidate,  but  not  with  any  competing  line,  but  all  such  purchasers  and 
consolidations  should  vest  the  property  in  the  Texas  Pacific  Railway  Company.  This 
company  was  to  file  maps,  to  build  and  complete  the  road  and  telegraph  line,  to  execute 
mortgages,  &c,  and  (section  17)  the  Texas  Pacific  Company  to  construct  the  road  within 
ten  years.  Nowhere  does  it  appear,  even  by  implication,  that  any  other  party,  by  privity 
of  contract  merely,  should  have  any  rights  in  the  matter,  either  to  perform  the  conditions 
imposed  or  succeed  to  any  of  the  privileges  conferred.  The  Texas  Pacific  was  to  be  a 
competitor  to  the  other  lines  across  the  continent,  as  well  those  projected  as  completed  ; 
and  so  everything  shows  that  Congress  intended  that  the  corporation  it  created  for  the 
purpose,  or  its  legal  successors,  should  perform  the  duties,  afford  the  facilities,  and 
receive  the  benefit  provided  for  by  this  act.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  Southern 
Pacific  had  no  authority,  direct  or  implied,  from  the  United  States  to  do  any  act  east  of 
the  Colorado  ;  it  was  only  authorized  to  connect  with  the  Texas  Pacific  at 
or  near  the  Colorado,  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  San  Francisco  with 
the  new  route  ;  there  and  at  that  point  its  power  ceased  so  far  as  Congress  was 
concerned.  All  that  it  has  done  since  was  at  its  own  instance:  it  was  not  induced  by 
the  land  grant  to  build  east  of  Yuma;  the  Government  did  not  request  it,  but  did  all  in 
its  power,  in  its  feeble  way  and  with  the  small  military  force  at  its  disposal,  to  prevent 
the  occupancy  of  the  Yuma  Reservation  and  the  Colorado  River,  but  unsuccessfully;  it 
pursued  its  course  as  a  rival  road  to  the  one  chartered  by  Congress  and  for  the  purpose, 
now  clearly  apparent,  of  defeating  the  expressed  will  of  the  people  for  a  competing  road 
across  the  conlinent,  by  securing  for  itself,  in  connection  with  the  Central  Pacific,  the 
entire  control  of  the  vast  and  increasing  transcontinental  transportation.  The  claim  of 
the  Southern  Pacific  to  be  treated  as  a  successor  of  the  Texas  Pacific  under  the  law  is 
based  solely  on  the  fact  that  it  has  succeeded  as  a  rival  to  the  Texas  Pacific  in  building  a 
road  where  the  Texas  Pacific  proposed  to  build  one;  preventing  the  Texas  Pacific  from 
accomplishing  the  object  of  its  creation,  and  in  return  for  a  concession  of  part  of  the 
freightage  of  the  future,  and  an  agreement  not  only  to  compete,  but  not  to  extend  lines 
to  the  injury  of  the  other,  the  Texas  Pacific  assumed  to  convey  what  it  never  had  the 
least  right  to  control,  either  legally  or  equitably,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  asserts  a  clear 
right  as  grantee  to  what  its  grantor  had  not  the  shadow  of  a  subsisting  claim,  and  as  to 
which  it  has  put  beyond  itself  the  power  to  ever  earn  or  claim.  San  Diego  was  named 
as  a  terminal  point  by  Congress,  and  for  very  obvious  reasons.  The  Central  Pacific 
reached  San  Francisco,  and  the  natural  depot  and  entrepot  for  the  proposed  competitive 
line  on  the  Pacific  would  be  San  Diego;  not  a  railroad  is  within  100  miles  of  it,  except 
on  paper,  now,  so  far  as  these  companies  are  concerned,  and  all  the  benefits  conferred 
by  the  road  taken  to  San  Francisco  and  made  to  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  com- 
pany it  was  to  compete  with.  The  facts  which  we  state  in  this  report  show  that  the 
Southern  Pacific  is  in  fact  the  Central  Pacific,  practically  the  same  directory  in  both,  the 
former  operated  under  a  lease  to  the  latter  ;  all  the  expenses  charged  in  the  account  of 
the  Central  Pacific.  These  claims  might  equally  as  well  be  made  by  the  Central  Pacific 
by  name  as  by  the  Southern  Pacific.  The  same  logic  that  would  justify  granting  this 
application  would  compel  doing  the  same  act  for  the  Central  Pacific  if  it  had  performed 
the  acts  done  nominally  by  the  Southern  Pacific.  The  difficulty  with  the  reasoning  of 
the  counsel  for  the  applicant  is,  that  they  assume  that  all  that  was  contemplated  by  Con- 
gress was  that  a  railroad  should  be  built  along  the  32d  parallel,  and  that  it  is  absolutely 
immaterial  who  or  what  company  builds  it,  or  what  the  relation  or  bearing  of  the  builder 
may  be  toward  the  people  or  the  question  of  transportation.  So  that  the  company  named 
in  the  granting  act  is  satisfied,  either  by  compulsion  or  purchase  ;  in  effect  making  the 
latter  company  the  agents  of  the  Government  to  bestow  a  gratuity  upon  the  corporation 
which  had  defeated  not  only  the  company  appointed  by  Congress  to  do  its  work,  but 
Congress  itself.  This  is  required,  and  must  appear  :  that  the  railroad  contemplated  by 
.the  granting  act  shall  be  built  or  procured,  and  by  the  designated  party  or  its  legal  suc- 
cessor, one  which  stands  in  its  place  and  stead,  under  the  restrictions  and  provisions  of 
the  granting  act ;  and  if  purchase  or  consolidation  be  attempted  or  effected,  that  the  cor- 
poration designated  by  Congress  shall  be  tJie  major  factor  in  the  case ;  that  it  shall  absorb 


220  THE  OVERTHROW   OF  MONOPOLIES. 

the  others,  and  be  the  owner  of  the  "corpus,"  and  not,  as  in  this  case,  when  the  process 
has  been  reversed.  The  act  provides  a  grant  for  "aiding  in  the  construction  of  the  rail- 
road and  telegraph  line  herein  provided  for,"  etc.,  not  a  railroad  constructed  by  the 
Central  Pacific  or  the  Union  Pacific,  or  th#  Atlantic  and  Pacific  companies,  or  either  of 
them,  but  by  a  company  it  created,  its  successors  or  assigns,  as  a  competitive  line. 

Again,  while  counsel  waived  argument  upon  the  question  before  us,  we  submit  that  the 
condition  in  the  grant  prohibiting  consolidation  with  rival  or  competing  lines  has  been 
absolutely  violated  by  the  Texas  and  Pacific  in  the  making  of  the  contract  of  November, 
1881. 

Practically  and  legally,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  public  or  the  question  of  transportation, 
that  contract  was  one  of  consolidation,  and  with  a  rival  hostile  line.  It  provides  for 
traffic  arrangements,  a  pool  of  receipts,  a  perpetual  user,  an  absolute  community  of  inter- 
est, an  agreement  not  to  construct  parallel  lines,  and  a  surrender  of  all  rights  and 
franchises  beyond  the  connecting  point,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  for  the  Texas  and 
Pacific  to  surrender  and  convey. 

Looking  over  the  whole  case,  then,  we  find  that  Congress  organized  a  particular  cor- 
poration for  an  avowed,  specific  purpose;  agreed  to  give  it  15,000,000  of  acres  of  land, 
if  within  ten  years  it  should  build  its  road  from  Marshall,  Tex.,  to  San  Diego  Bay  as 
provided. 

Congress  prohibited  it  from  making  any  arrangements  with  others  which  would 
destroy  its  own  identity,  or  interfere  with  the  proposed  or  expected  results. 

Congress  provided  that  in  any  consolidation  it  might  make  or  contracts  with  regard 
to  property  rights,  the  property  acquired,  rights  secured,  or  consolidation  effected,  all 
should  be  the  property  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific. 

This  company  has  not  accomplished  a  single  object  for  which  it  was  created. 
It  has  never  been  in  a  position  or  condition  in  which  it  could  perform,  or  even  at- 
tempt to  perform,  substantially,  one  single  act  required  of  it. 

It  never  reached  a  point  nearer  than  90  miles  of  where  it  could  earn  an  acre  of 
ground;  it  was  never  in  sight  of  the  "promised  land." 

Failing  to  do  any  act  it  was  bound  and  required  to  do,  it  attempted  to  do  every  act 
possible  which  it  was  prohibited  from  doing. 

Organized  to  build  across  the  continent,  it  solemnly  bound  itself  with  its  rival  and 
enemy  never  to  attempt  to  do  it.  Created  to  compete  with  the  Central  Pacific,  it  makes 
a  perpetual  alliance  with  it,  and  a  perpetual  pool  as  to  charges  and  rates.  Established 
to  promote  a  healthy,  beneficial  competition,  it  bargains  away,  so  tar  as  it  is  able,  its  fran- 
chises, or  right  to  exist  as  a  corporation  in  all  the  territory  where  Congress  had  sole  juris- 
diction, and  parceled  out  as  suited  the  convenience  of  itself  and  its  opponent  the  carrying 
trade  of  one-third  of  the  territory  of  the  Republic.  Given  life  for  a  special  purpose,  it 
uses  every  means  within  its  power  to  defeat  the  object  of  its  creation,  and,  as  a  fitting 
climax  to  all  this  iniquity,  it  endeavors  to  supplant  Congress  as  a  donor  of  the  public 
domain,  as  a  part  of  the  transaction  which  was  its  own  suicide.  The  Southern  Pacific 
claims  to  "stand  in  the  shoes  "  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific. 

Your  committee  agree  that  "standing  in  the  shoes"  would  do  if  the  Southern  Pacific 
filled  the  shoes.      But  it  does  not. 

It  never  had  authority  or  recognition  by  Congress  east  of  Yuma.  All  its  attempts 
before  Congress  to  secure  recognition  there  have  repeatedly  failed  as  made.  For  its  own 
purposes,  at  its  own  instance,  in  its  own  way,  by  methods  which  many  honest,  good  men 
have  denounced,  greedy  to  embrace  all  the  land  with  its  network  of  rails,  to  secure 
monopoly  of  transportation,  surmounting  opposition  and  beating  down  all  obstacles  in  its 
way,  and  in  doing  so  crushing  the  agent  Congress  had  selected  as  the  instrument  to  build 
a  road  there,  doing  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  by  the  governmental  authority  or  assent 
even,  and  having  succeeded  in  defeating  a  necessary  work  and  rendering  absolutely 
abortive  the  attempt  to  have  one  competing  transportation  route  to  the  Pacific  built,  it 
cooly  asks  Congress  to  bestow  upon  it  fifteen  millions  of  acres  of  land,  to  give  it  the  own- 
ership of  an  area  sufficient  for  perhaps  one  hundred  thousand  homes  as  a  reward  for  that 
result. 

So  your  committee  report  the  accompanying  bill  with  the  recommendation  that  it  pass, 
suggesting  here  that  it  may  not  be  improper  to  adopt  the  same  rule  as  to  Mr.  Huntington 
that  he  proposed  as  to  Mr.  Scott  in  his  letter  of  November  8,  1874,  No.  2,  above,  "but 
if  Scott  kicks  at  it,  I  propose  to  say  to  Congress,  '  We  will  build  east  of  the  Colorado  to 
meet  the  Texas  Pacific  without  aid,  and  then  see  how  many  members  will  dare  to  give 
him  aid  to  do  what  we  offered  to  do  without.'  "  We  will  plead  guilty  to  a  curiosity  to 
see  how  many  members  of  this  House  will  "  dare  to  vote  "  to  give  this  grant  to  him  now, 
for  doing  what  he  then  proposed  to  do  and  did  without  aid  or  promise  of  any.  We  are 
confirmed  in  our  conclusion  by  the  action  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House  of  the 
Forty-seventh  Congress,  where,  as  we  are  advised,  fourteen  of  the  fifteen  members  of  that 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  221 

committee  concurred  in  the  opinion  that  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  had 
neither  legal  nor  equitable  claim  to  any  part  of  the  grant,  and  that  under  the  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  is  necessary  to  re- 
store this  land  to  the  public  domain.  No  legal  rights  can  be  divested  or  lost  by  the  pro- 
posed action,  and  whatever  legal  rights  exist  can  only  be  ascertained  after  forfeiture. 

We  ought,  perhaps,  to  apologize  for  the  length  of  this  report;  but  the  interests  are  so 
vast,  the  value  of  the  property  so  great,  the  claim  of  the  railroad  company  insisted  upon 
with  so  much  zeal  and  apparent  candor  and  earnestness,  and,  moreover,  this  being  the 
pioneer  case  in  the  list  of  proposed  forfeitures  of  lapsed  land  grants  to  railroads  before  this 
Congress,  we  have  thought  it  not  inexpedient  to  thoroughly  canvass  the  questions  pre- 
sented, although  subjecting  ourselves  to  the  charge  of  prolixity. 

A  Bill  to  declare  a  forfeiture  of  lands  granted  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company, 

and  for  other  purposes. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  all  lands  granted  to  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  under  the  act  of  Congress  entitled  "An  act  to  incorporate  the  Texas  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  and  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  its  road,  and  for  other  purposes," 
approved  March  third,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-one,  and  acts  amendatory  thereof 
or  supplemental  thereto,  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  declared  forfeited,  and  that  the  whole 
of  said  lands  be  restored  to  the  public  domain  and  made  subject  to  sale  and  settlement 
under  existing  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Sec.  2.  That  in  any  and  all  cases,  as  to  any  lands  embraced  within  the  terms  of  the 
act  named  in  section  one  of  this  act,  whenever  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  or  its 
officers,  or  the  local  land  officers,  have  treated  said  lands  as  open  to  selection,  purchase, 
or  homestead  entry,  and  have  allowed  purchases,  selections,  and  entries  of  any  of  said 
lands  under  the  general  laws  of  the  United  States,  the  acts  of  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  and  its  officers,  and  the  local  land  officers,  in  permitting  such  entries,  selec- 
tions, and  purchases,  in  making  such  sales  and  in  issuing  patents,  certificates,  and  lists 
thereon,  are  hereby  ratified  and  validated  ;  and  the  rights  and  titles  of  parties  or  persons 
holding  patents  or  claiming  right  or  title  under  certificaces  or  lists  of  lands  issued  or 
certified  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  the  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
or  certificates  issued  by  the  officers  of  the  local  land  offices,  or  who  have  made  home- 
stead enteries  or  pre-emption  settlements  or  claims  of  any  kind  upon  any  of  said  lands, 
under  the  general  laws  of  the  United  States,  in  any  way  affected  adversely  by  said  grant, 
are  hereby  confirmed  and  made  valid  to  the  same  extent  as  though  said  grant  had  never 
been  made  ;  and  all  of  said  lands  embraced  within  the  provisions  of  said  acts  shall  be 
restored  to  the  public  domain,  subject  to  the  saving  of  rights  as  provided  in  this  section, 
as  though  said  grant  had  never  been  made. 

H.  R.  181. 

To  declare  forfeited  certain  lands  granted  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
in  Oregon  and  to  enforce  the  same  by  judicial  proceedings. 

Passed  House  June  4,  1884.  In  the  Senate  received  June  9,  1884,  and  referred 
to  the  committee  on  public  lands  March  7,  with  amendment.     No  vote  taken. 

H.  R.  180. 

To  declare  forfeited  certain  lands  in  the  State  of  Michigan  to  and  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  railroad,  and  to  enforce  the  same  by  judicial  proceedings. 

In  the  House  March  5, 1884,  reported  from  the  committee  and  referred  to  the 
House  calendar.     No  vote  taken. 

H.  R.  5682. 

To  repeal  section  22  of  the  act  to  incorporate  the  Texas  Pacific  R.  R.  Co., 
approved  March  3,  1871 ;  and  to  declare  a  forfeiture  of  the  land  grant  therein 
made,  and  for  other  purposes. 

In  the  House,  June  26,  defeated. 

H.  R.  6408. 

To  forfeit  lands  granted  to  the  State  of  Michigan  to  aid  in  the  construction  of 
a  railroad  from  Marquette  to  Ontonagon  in  said  State.     No  vote  taken. 
H.  R.  6416. 


222  THE  OVERTHROW   OF    MONOPOLIES. 

To  provide  for  the  adjustment  of  land  grants  made  by  Congress  to  aid  in  the 
construction  of  railroads  within  the  State  of  Kansas.     No  vote  taken. 

H.  R  6534. 

To  declare  forfeited  certain  lands  granted  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  R  R  and  for  other  purposes.     No  vote  taken. 

H.  R  7162. 

To  forfeit  the  unearned  lands  granted  to  the  Atlantic  &  Pacific  R  R  Co.  and 
to  restore  the  same  to  the  public  domain.     Passed  House  June  9,  1884. 

In  the  Senate,  July  3,  amended  and  passed  Senate.  No  conference  between 
the  two  houses  had. 

H.  R  7238. 

To  restore  lands  held  in  indemnity  limits  for  railroad  and  wagon  road 
companies  and  for  other  purposes.     No  vote  taken. 

H.  R  7299. 

Forfeiting  a  part  of  certain  lands  granted  to  the  State  of  Iowa  to  aid  in  the 
construction  of  railroads  in  that  State  and  for  other  purposes.  Passed  House 
June  20.  In  the  Senate,  June  21,  received  and  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Public  Lands.     No  report  made. 

H.  R  7495. 

To  declare  forfeited  certain  lands  granted  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  from  Portland  in  Oregon  to  the  Central  Pacifie  R  R  Co.  in  Cal.  No 
vote  taken. 

Foreign  Land  Owners. 

The  following  table  shows  the  amount  of  acres  held  in  vast  estates  by  foreign, 
absentee,  landlords  : 

The  Holland  Land  Company,  New  Mexico 4,500,000 

An  English  syndicate,  No.  3,  in  Texas 3,000,000 

Sir  Edward  Reid  and  a  syndicate,  in  Florida 2,000,000 

English  syndicate,  in  Mississippi 1,800,000 

Marquis  of  Tweedale 1 ,  750,000 

Phillips,  Marshal  &  Co.,  London 1,300,000 

German  syndicate 1, 100,000 

Anglo-American  syndicate,  Mr.  Rogers,  president,  London 750,000 

Bryan  H.  Evans,  of  London,  in  Mississippi 700,000 

Duke  of  Sutherland 425,000 

British  Land  Company,  in  Kansas 320,000 

William  Whalley,  M.P.,  Peterboro,  England 310,000 

Missouri  Land  Company,  Edinburgh,  Scotland 300,000 

Robert  Tennant,  of  London 230,000 

Dundee  Land  Company,  Scotland 247,000 

Lord  Dunmore 120,000 

Benjamin  Newgas,  Liverpool 100,000 

Lord  Houghton,  in  Florida 60,000 

Lord  Dunraven,  in  Colorado .'  60,000 

English  Land  Company,  in  Florida 50,000 

English  Land  Company,  in  Arkansas 50,000 

Albert  Peel,  M.P.,  Leicestershire,  England 10,000 

Sir  J.  L.  Kay,  Yorkshire,  England / 5>ooo 

Alexander  Grant,  of  London,  in  Kansas 35,000 

English  syndicate  (represented  by  Close  Bros.)  Wisconsin 110,000 

M.  Ellerhauser,  of  Halifax,  Novia  Scotia,  in  West  Virginia 600,000 

A  Scotch  syndicate,  in  Florida 500,000 

A  Boysen,  Danish  Consul,  in  Milwaukee . 50,000 

Missouri  Land  Company,  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland 165,000 

Total 20,747,000 


THE   OVERTHROW   OF   MONOPOLIES.  223 

Unlawful  Fencing  of  the   Public  Domain, 

Space  does  not  permit  an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  wealthy  owners  of 
large  cattle  ranches,  many  of  them  foreigners,  have  been  permitted  by  the  present 
administration  to  unlawfully  fence  in  the  land  belonging  to  the  Government. 

Among  the  cases  of  unauthorized  fencing  specially  reported  to  the  Land  Office 
by  agents  are  those  of  the  Prairie  Cattle  Company,  embracing  upwards  of  1,000,- 

000  acres;  the  Arkansas  Valley  Company,  1,000,000  acres;  H.  H.  Metcalf, 
200,000  acres  ;  John  W.  Prowers,  200,000  acres  ;  McDaniel  &  Davis,  75,000  acres; 
Routchler  &  Lamb,  40,000  acres  ;  J.  W.  Frank,  40,000  acres  ;  Garnett  &  Lang- 
ford,  30,000  acres  ;  E.  C.  Tane,  50,000  acres  ;  Lewesey  Brothers,  150,000  acres  ; 
Vroomer  &  McFife,  50,000  acres  ;  Beatty  Brothers,  40,000  acres  ;  Chick,  Brown 
&  Co.,  30,000  acres,  and  Reynolds  Cattle  Company,  50,000  acres,  all  in  Colorado. 
Brighton  Ranche,  125,000  acres ;  Coe  &  Carter,  80,000  acres  ;  J.  W.  Wilson, 
25,000  acres  ;  Kennebec  Ranch,  40,000  acres,  and  J.  W.  Bosler,  20,000  acres,  in 
Nebraska.  William  Humphrey,  25,000  acres,  and  Nelson  &  Son,  20,000  acres,  in 
Nevada. 

Whole  Counties  Appropriated. 

Entire  counties  are  reported  as  being  fenced  in  Kansas.  In  Wyoming  more 
than  one  hundred  large  cattle  companies  are  reported  as  having  fencing  on  the 
public  lands.  Some  of  these  companies  are  reported  to  be  English  and  others 
Scotch. 

It  is  estimated  that  between  5,000,000  and  6,000,000- acres  of  public  land  are 
now  illegally  fenced,  and  that  several  millions  of  acres  are  fraudulently  entered. 

Relative  to  the  fraudulent  entries  of  land,  a  land  agent  in  New  Mexico  informs 
the  General  Land  Commissioner  that  of  the  entries  in  that  Territory  ninety  per 
cent,  are  fraudulent,  and  another  agent  in  Dakota,  writing  upon  the  same  subject, 
says  that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  entries  are  fraudulent  in  that  Territory.  The 
following  table  shows  the  number  of  fraudulent  entries  that  have  been  investigated 
during  the  past  year,  and  approximately  the  number  of  illegally  fenced  acres  in 
the  various  States  and  Territories  : 

States      and  Fraudulent  Acres  Illegally 

Territories.  Entries.  Fenced  In. 

Arkansas 70  

Dakota   460  

Colorado 808  2,800,000 

California 139  • 

New  Mexico 827  1,500,000 

Minnesota 311  , 

Washington  Territory 109  

Idaho 92  

Nebraska 170  300,000 

Montana 24        Not  investigated 

Wyoming 10  250,000 

Alabama 153  

Wisconsin 10  

Florida   '. . . 71  

Oregon  83  

Kansas    182  200,000 

Nevada 60,000 

Besides  the  cases  embraced  in  the  foregoing  table  there  are  about  five  thousand 
entries  on  which  action  has  been  suspended  until  an  examination  can  be  made  by 
special  agents. 

J.  W.  McFarland,  of  Harper,  Kan.,  writes  to  the  Land  Office  : 
In  the  name  of  God  I  ask  is  this  a  republican  form  of  government,  when  the 
poor  man,  with  barely  enough  to  keep  soul  and  body  together  and  pay  for  his  160 
acres  of  land  must  pay  the  taxes  of  the  country  and  the  cattle  king  go  free.     If  so, 

1  was  a  big  fool  to  spend  three  years  of  my  life  to  defend  such  a  country. 


224  THE   OVERTHROW    OF   MONOPOLIES. 

In  the  State  of  Colorado  alone  the  administration  of  the  law  has  been  so  lax 
that  2,157,000  acres  of  Government  land  have  been  illegally  fenced  in.  This 
would  provide  homesteads  for  13,481  heads  of  families,  and  could  maintain  easily 
a  population  of  75,000  people.     The  following  is  the  table  : 

ACRES. 

Leivesy  Brothers,  Pueblo  and  Fremont  Counties,  R.  66  and  67,  T.  20  and  21 .  .  150,000 

J.  W.  Frank,  Pueblo  County,  R.  65  and  66,  T.  20  and  21 40,000 

M.  Stute,  Pueblo  County,  R.  65,  T.  13  and  19 20,000 

E.  C.  Tane,  Pueblo  County,  R.  63  and  64,  T.  19  and  20 50,000 

Garnett  &  Langford,  Pueblo  County,  R.  62 ....  30,000 

A.  D.  Carpenter,  Pueblo  County,  R.  62  and  63 20,000 

John  Ross,  Pueblo  County,  R.  61  and  62 20,000 

John  Herchberger,  Pueblo  County,  R.  60 10,000 

Crook  &  Carlisle,  Pueblo  County,  R.  59  and  60 10,000 

McDaniel  &  Davis,  Pueblo  County,  R.  60  and  61 75, 000 

Rantchler  &  Lamb,  Pueblo  County,  R.  60  and  62 40,000 

John  W.  Prowers,  Bent  County 200,000 

Prairie  Cattle  Company,  Bent  and  Las  Animas  Counties    100,000 

Arkansas  Valley  Cattle  Company,  Bent  and  Las  Animas  Counties 1,000,000 

Vrooman  &  McFife,  Bent  County 50,000 

J.  W.  Swink,  Bent  County,  R.  56  and  57 10,000 

Hopkins  &  Bingham,  Bent  County 30,000 

Beatty  Brothers,  Bent  County 40,000 

J.  W.  Patton,  Bent  County 5,000 

H.  Bert,  Bent  County 5, 000 

A.  C.  Poke,  Bent  County 3, 000 

J.  L.  Metch,  Bent  County 5,000 

James  Pratt,  Bent  County 3, 000 

H.  Thompson,  Bent  County 2,000 

Reed  &  Foster,  Bent  County 2,000 

Ed.  Wah,  Fremont  County 10,000 

William  Gorman,  Fremont  County 2,000 

Witcher  Brothers,  Fremont  County 20,000 

Reynolds  Cattle  Company,  Fremont  County 50,000 

A.  Steel,  Fremont  County 10,000 

Ed.  Burnett,  Fremont  County 5, 000 

Henry  Berris,  Fremont  County .    .    20,000 

Freeman  Brothers,  Pueblo  and  Fremont  Counties •. 20,000 

R.  Pope,  Fremont  County 2,000 

G.  E.  Phillips,  Fremont  County 2,000 

James  Errers,  Fremont  County 2,000 

B.  Berry,  Park  County 25,000 

B.  Hammond,  Park  County 2,000 

W.  R.  Smith,  Park  County 15,000 

Early  Brothers,  Park  County 12,000 

J.  Mulock,  Park  County 20,000 

J.  Simms,  Park  County 10,000 

Thomas  Robbins,  Park  County 10,000 

The  Democratic  party,  in  convention  assembled,  pledges  itself  to  the 
preservation  of  the  public  lands  for  actual  settlers.  Its  record  in  Congress  has 
been  given,  and  shows  a  determination  to  exact  the  forfeiture  of  all  unearned 

lands  granted  to  railroads.     Upon  this  vital' question,  as  upon  all  others,  it  is,  not 
by  profession  merely,  but  by  practice,  the  true  anti-monopoly  party. 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  225 


Protection  of  Labor. 

Labor  Bills. 

The  action  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  48th  Congress  en  questions 
affecting  the  material  well  being  of  workingmen  was  highly  commendable.  One 
of  its  first  acts  was  to  constitute  a  Committee  on  Labor  to  consider  and  perfect 
such  measures  for  action.  And  this  action  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  refusal 
of  the  47th  Congress  to  create  such  a  committee.  It  is  well  known  that  repre- 
sentatives of  the  leading  labor  organizations  applied  to  Speaker  Keif er  for  the  crea- 
tion of  a  Committee  on  Labor,  and,  failing  in  that,  for  the  appointment  on  the 
committee,  to  which  what  are  known  as  the  labor  bills  would  be  referred,  of 
members  known  to  be  familiar  with  the  wants  and  in  sympathy  with  the  wishes 
of  workingmen.  No  Committee  on  Labor  was  created  by  the  Republican  Con  - 
gress,  nor  were  the  members  suggested  appointed  on  the  committee  having  the 
bills  in  charge.  As  above  stated  a  committee  on  labor  was  created  by  the 
present  Congress  and  men  appointed  on  it  who  were  known  as  friends  of  the 
workingmen,  among  them  being  Mr.  Hopkins  of  Pa.,  Mr.  Foran  of  Ohio,  a 
cooper  by  trade,  Mr.  Lovering  of  Mass.,  formerly  an  operator  in  a  shoe  factory, 
and  Mr.  O'Neill  of  Mo.,  well  known  as  an  eloquent  advocater  of  the  rights  of 
workingmen.  From  this  committee  were  reported,  1,  the  bill  to  establish  a 
bureau  of  labor;  2,  the  bill  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  foreign  labor  under 
contract;  3,  the  bill  to  enforce  the  eight  hour  law;  4,  the  joint  resolution  de- 
claring in  favor  of  the  employment  of  residents  and  citizens  of  the  U.  S. 
in  the  Construction  of  the  public  works  of  the  governmant;  5,  the  joint  resolu- 
tion proposing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  U.  S.  prohibiting  any 
State  from  contracting  with  any  person  or  corporation  to  hire  or  contract  out  the 
labor  of  prisoners;  6,  the  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  contract  labor  system,  so  far 
as  the  prisoners  of  the  TJ.  S.  are  concerned;  and  7,  the  bill  granting  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  the  employes  of  the  Government  Printing  Office.  The  bill  to  grant  leave 
of  absence  to  letter  carriers,  the  bill  to  make  effective  the  act  prohibiting  the  im- 
portation of  Chinese  laborers,  the  bill  to  prevent  the  unlawful  occupancy  of  the 
public  domain,  and  various  bills  to  forfeit  unearned  land  grants  were  reported 
from  other  Committees  of  the  House. 

Of  these  measures  the  bill  to  establish  a  bureau  of  labor  because  a  law,  and  is  in 
the  words  following  : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  shall  be  established  in  the  Department 
of  the  interior  a  Bureau  of  Labor,  which  shall  be  under  the  charge  of  a  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor,  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the  consent 
of  the  Senate.  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  shall  hold  his  office  for  four  years, 
and  until  his  successor  shall  be  appointed  and  qualified,  unless  sooner  removed, 
and  shall  receive  a  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars  a  year.  The  Commissioner 
shall  collect  information  upon  the  subject  of  labor,  its  relation  to  capital,  the 
hours  of  labor,  and  the  earnings  of  laboring  men  and  women,  and  the  means  of 
promoting  their  material,  social,  intellectual,  and  moral  prosperity.  The  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  upon  the  recommendation  of  said  Commissioner,  shall  appoint 

15 


226  PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 

a  chief  clerk,  who  Shall  receive  a  salary  of  two  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  ancF 
such  other  employees  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  said  Bureau  :  Provided,  That 
the  total  expense  shall  not  exceed  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  per  annum.  Dur- 
ing the  neccessary  absence  of  the  Commissioner,  or  when  the  office  shall  become 
vacant,  the  chief  clerk  shall  perform  the  duties  of  the  Commissioner.  The  Com- 
missioner shall  annually  make  a  report  in  writing  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
of  the  information  collected  and  collated  by  him,  and  containing  such  recom- 
mendations as  he  may  deem  calculated  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the  Bureau. 
Approved,  June  27,  1884. 

The  bill  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  foreigners  and  aliens  under  contract  to 
perform  labor  in  the  United  States,  passed  the  House,  June  19, 1884,  by  a  vote  of 
102  to  17.     The  report  accompanying  the  bill  says 

"  The  bill  in  no  measure  seeks  to  restrict  free  immigration.  Such  a  proposition 
would  be,  and  justly  so,  odious  to  the  American  people.  The  foreigner  who  vol- 
untarily and  from  choice  leaves  his  native  land  and  settles  in  this  country  with 
the  intention  of  becoming  an  American  citizen,  a  part  of  the  American  body  poli- 
tic, has  always  been  welcome  to  our  shores.     As  a  recent  writer  well  said — 

Such  an  immigrant  by  his  coming  to  this  country  gives  us  a  certain  assurance  as  to  his  ability  to 
take  care  of  himself,  and  to  hold  up  the  standard  of  social  well  being  which  he  finds  already 
existing  among  our  working  classes. 

Such  an  immigrant  comes  here  because  the  institutions  of  the  country  are  in 
consonance  with  his  social  and  political  ideas,  and  because  of  the  advantages 
and  opportunities  afforded  by  the  extent  of  our  domain  and  its  material  resources. 
He  comes  to  better  his  social  and  financial  condition,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
facilities  which  he  finds  here;  and  as  he  comes  of  his  own  volition,  by  his  own 
means,  and  from  choice,  he  always  exacts  for  his  labor  the  highest  rates  which 
the  market  affords.  No  one  is  injured  by  his  coming,  and  as  he  generally  makes 
a  good  citizen,  the  State  is  benefited  by  the  acquisition.  These  immigrants  are 
generally  of  a  higher  class  socially,  morally,  and  intellectually,  and  have  aided 
largely  in  the  development  of  our  industries  and  the  material  progress  of  our  peo- 
ple. With  this  class  of  immigrants  this  bill  has  no  concern.  Its  object  is  to  re- 
strict and  prohibit  the  immigration  or  rather  the  importation  of  an 
entirely  different  class  of  persons,  the  immigrant  who  does  not  come 
by  "his  own  initiative,  but  by  that  of  the  capitalist."  It  seeks  to  re- 
strain and  prohibit  the  immigration  or  importation  of  laborers  who 
would  have  never  seen  our  shores  but  for  the  inducements  and  allurements 
of  men  whose  only  object  is  to  obtain  labor  at  the  lowest  possible  rate,  regardless 
of  the  social  and  material  well  being  of  our  own  citizens  and  regardless  of  the. 
evil  consequences  which  result  to  American  laborers  from  such  immigration. 
This  class  of  immigrants  care  nothing  about  our  institutions,  and  in  many  in- 
stances never  even  heard  of  them  ;  they  are  men  whose  passage  is  paid  by  the 
importers  ;  they  come  here  under  contract  to  labor  for  a  certain  number  of  years  y 
they  are  ignorant  of  our  social  conditions,  and  that  they  may  remain  so  they  are 
isolated  and  prevented  from  coming  into  contact  with  Americans.  They  are 
generally  from  the  lowest  social  stratum,  and  live  upon  the  coarsest  food  and  in 
hovels  of  a  character  before  unknown  to  American  workmen.  Being  bound  by 
contract  they  are  unable,  even  were  they  so  disposed,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
facilities  afforded  by  the  country  to  which  they  have  been  imported.  They,  as  a 
rule,  do  not  become  citizens,  and  are  certainly  not  a  desirable  acquisition  to  the 
body  politic.  When  their  term  of  contract  servitude  expires,  their  place  is  sup- 
plied by  fresh  importations.  The  inevitable  tendency  of  their  presence  amongst 
us  is  to  degrade  American  labor  and  reduce  it  to  the  level  of  the  imported  pauper 
labor. 

The  demand  for  the  enactment  of  some  restrictive  measure  of  this  character 
comes  not  alone  from  American  workingmen,  but  also  from  employers  of  labor 
in  America.  The  employers  of  labor,  who  from  inability  or  from  patriotic  mo- 
tives, employ  only  American  workingmen,  are  unable  to  compete  in  the  market 
with  the  corporations  who  employ  the  cheap  imported  labor. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  proposition,  the  glass  manufacturers  of 
Pittsburgh,  including  all  the  large  employers  of  labor  in  that  industry,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1880,  denounced  the  action  of  the  manufacturers  west  of  Pittsburgh  in- 
importing  European  workmen  in  place  of  discharged  American  workmen. 


PROTECTION    OF    LABOR.  227 

This  evil  has  become  so  extensive,  alarming,  and  great,  that  the  attention  of 
our  foreign  consuls  has  been  directed  to  it. 

Henry  Sterne,  Esq.,  United  States  Consul  at  Buda-Pesth,  Hungary,  says  • 

There  seems  to  be  an  agency  at  work,  which  by  misrepresentations  induces  people  to  leave  their 
homes  who  will  not  better  their  condition  thereby,  nor  benefit  the  country  which  receives  them. 
People  inquire  by  letter  and  in  person  at  this  consulate  about  this  agency  of  which  they  have  h«ard 
or  read.  Some  even  claim  that  this  consulate  has  instructions  from  the  United  States  Government 
to  assist  people  in  immigrating.  I  am  under  the  impression  that  the  United  States  Government 
does  not  approve  of  immigration  brought  about  by  such  irregular  means,  and  of  the  character  de- 
scribed, and,  therefore,  beg  leave  to  suggest  whether  steps  could  or  should  not  be  taken  to  correct 
the  evil,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  term  it  such.  Ihave  information  that  agents  are  managing  the 
business  a  good  deal  in  the  manner  of  the  Coolie  trade,  and  that  these  immigrants  are 
shipped  to  the  united  states  about  like  so  many  cattle.  (See  State  Department  Report 
1881-82.) 

Count  Esterhazy,  an  intelligent,  cultivated  Hungarian,  at  present  Austrian 
consul  to  this  country,  who  has  established  a  bureau  for  the  protection  of  Hun-, 
garian  immigrants,  says  : 

There  is  no  doubt  that  a  contract  system  is  being  carried  on,  and  T  believe  it  has  reached  larger 
proportions  than  any  one  believes.  Certain  it  is  that  great  numbers  of  immigrants  are  landed  on 
these  shores  who  are  owned  by  capitalists.  As  far  as  I  know,  persons  who  have  been  so  imported 
are  satisfied;  but  this  fact  does  not  apologize  for  the  system.  I  have  long  endeavored  to  discover 
who  the  parties  are  who  obtain  the  immigrants  on  the  other  side,  but  have  thus  far  been  unsuc- 
cessful.   I  certainly  hope  that  Congress  will  pass  some  law  to  put  a  stop  to  such  immigration. 

Superintendent  Jackson,  of   Castle   Garden,  says,  speaking  on  this   subject: 

I  have  no  doubt  that  this  system  is  carried  on  to  a  great  extent  by  corporations 
in  this  country  who  have  their  agents  abroad.  Every  now  and  then  large  gangs 
of  laborers  arrive,  all  bound  for  the  same  town.  They  are  generally  taken 
in  charge  by  some  person  or  persons  who  come  here  to  meet  them.  Some  few 
weeks  ago  a  party  composed  of  about  sixty  Irish  and  German  girls  ar- 
rived, all  of  whom  were  going  to  one  of  the  large  silk  manufacturing  establish- 
ments in  New  Jersey.  I  do  not  know  whether  they  had  contracted  with  any  per- 
sons, but  presume  they  had  done  so.  No  one  will  undertake  to  send  persons  to 
this  country  free  of  charge  without  some  guarantee  that  certain  services  will  be 
performed  in  lieu  of  the  price  of  such  passage.  We  have  never  received  any 
complaints  from  the  persons  who  have  been  imported  here,  but  nevertheless  Ihave 
no  doubt  that  such  a  slavery  system  is  being  carried  on. 

Mr.  Tuke,  of  the  Tuke  immigration  committee  of  Great  Britain,  a  short  time  ago 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  London  Times,  and  after  referring  to  the  immigrants  whose 
passage  had  been  paid  to  America  from  the  Tuke  fund,  said :  "  Many  instances 
are  cited  in  which  immigrants  are  returning  their  passage  money."  Whether 
they  had  done  so  because  they  had  been  transported  under  agreement  or  contract  to 
perform  labor  here,  and  were  to  a  certain  extent  compelled  to  return  their  passage 
money,  does  not  appear,  but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  such  was  the  case.  In 
one  year  (1883)  this  Tuke  immigration  committee  "assisted"  or  rather  transported 
3,600  persons  to  the  United  States.  It  is  more  than  questionable  whether  these  as- 
sisted immigrants,  even  if  they  do  not  come  under  contract,  are  a  desirable  ac- 
quisition to  our  population.  This  government  is  certainly  under  no  moral  obli- 
gations to  care  for  and  maintain  the  pauperized  victims  of  the  misrule  and  tyranny 
of  foreign  powers,  whether  brought  here  by  contract  or  by  the  monopolies  of 
America,  or  assisted  here  by  the  governments  whose  policy  reduced  them  to 
pauperism. 

Mr.  John  Swinton,  of  New  York  city,  in  a  recent  issue  of  his  paper,  states  that 
in  the  lower  quarters  of  New  York  city  there  are_quite  a  number  of  firms  engaged 
in  trafficking  in  human  flesh;  they  are,  as  a  rule,engaged  in  the  ' 'banking  business," 
but  their  ventures  in  the  slave  traffic  are  quite  extensive.  Going  into  one  of  these 
establishments  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  securing  Italian  laborers  for  an  iron 
company,  the  agent  stated,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry,  that  during  the  time  they  had 
been  inknsmess,  fourteen  thousand  Italians  had  been  brought  to  this  country  under 
contract,  six  thousand  of  whom  had  returned  to  Italy.  It  was  further  stated  that 
they  had  agents  at  Naples;  that  the  American  companies  paid  the  passage  of  the 
men  from  Italy,  and  their  fare  from  New  York  to  destination,  which  amount,the 


228  PROTECTION    OF   LABOR. 

imported  Italian  agrees  to  pay  back  with  6  per  cent,  interest.  The  men  are 
shipped  from  New  York  to  destination  by  the  carload,  cars  being  chartered  for 
that  puipose.  The  men  receive  from  the  American  companies  from  $1  to  $1.25 
per  day.  Mr.  Swinton  also  states  that  the  Hudson  River  Iron  and  Ore  Company 
in  Linlithgow,  Columbia  County,  New  York,  had  in  June,  1883,  a  large  number 
of  Hungarian  laborers  employed  at  one  dollar  per  day;  they  were  paid  monthly, 
fifteen  days  being  invariably  retained  by  the  company.  The  men  were  huddled 
together  in  shanties,  and  live  mainly  upon  rye  bread  and  potatoes.  They  had 
been  brought  there  under  contract  to  fill  the  places  of  American  workingmen  to 
glut  the  market  and  thus  depresswages. 

The  testimony  of  those  who  have  observed  the  habits  of  these  men  imported 
under  contract  is  uniform  as  to  their  habits.  "  In  respect  to  economy  and  frugal- 
ity they  greatly  resemble  the  Chinese.  One  of  them  will  walk  miles,  if  necessary, 
to  a  butcher's  shop  and  carry  off  thankfully  the  offal  and  refuse  given  them.  The 
women  assist  the  men,  and  do  fully  as  much  work.  Children  of  both  sexes  not 
more  than  five  years  of  age  assist  their  mothers  in  loading  the  coke  cars.  Nearly 
everything  they  eat  is  boiled  in  a  pot  brought  from  Hungary.  As  many  as  forty 
are  known  to  live  in  a  single  hut  of  two  small  rooms." 

Free  American  workingmen,  with  American  ideas,  culture  and  intelligence, 
cannot  possibly  compete  with  these  people.  The  situation  is  essentially  parallel 
to  that  which  induced  Congress  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  the  Chinese. 
Italians  and  Hungarians  are  now  brought  to  this  country  in  precisely  the  same 
manner  that  the  importation  of  Chinese  was  begun  seventeen  years  ago.  The 
Chinese  were  brought  to  California  under  contract  and  then  hired  out  to  the 
Union  Pacific,  Central  Pacific,  and  other  railway  companies.  Italians  have  been 
brought  here  in  the  same  way  to  work  for  the  Nickel  Plate,  Ohio  River,  and 
other  railway  companies  in  the  Eastern,  Southern,  and  Middle  States.  If  it 
became  necessary  to  protect  the  American  workingmen  of  the  Pacific  slope  from 
the  disastrous  and  debasing  competition  of  Coolie  labor,  the  same  argument  now 
applies  with  equal  force  and  pertinency  to  the  importation  of  pauper  labor  from 
Southern  Europe. 

The  extracts  from  the  able  report  of  Mr.  Foran  which  have  been  quoted  show 
clearly  the  gravity  of  the  danger  threatening  American  workingmen  and  the 
imperative  need  of  legislation  for  their  protection.  The  following  resolution 
was  adopted  by  the  Window  Glass  Manufacturers'  Association-  held  at  West  End 
Hotel,  Long  Branch,  July  11,  1883  : 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Gorsuch  it  was  resolved,  by  a  vote  of  13  to  8,  that  the 
treasurer  be  authorized  to  pay  a  sum  not  exceeding  thirty  dollars  per  man  for 
each  blower  or  gatherer  brought  over  from  Europe  after  August  1,  1883,  provided 
the  same  be  employed  by  some  member  of  this  association,  and  provided  they  are 
not  workmen  who  have  been  in  this  country  within  the  twelve  months  last  past. 

Appended  to  the  report  is  a  summary  of  the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee, 
extracts  from  which  are  here  given  : 

Mr.  T.  V.  Powdekly,  of  Scranton.  Pa.,  master  workman  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  of  the  United 
States,  representing  500,000  workingmen  who  are  interested  in  several  bills  which  are  before  Con- 
gress, testified  as  follows : 

"  I  am  interested  in  the  eight  hour  law,  the  land  bill,  and  bill  on  imported  labor  under  contract 
introduced  by  Mr.  Foran.  These  imported  men  show  no  disposition  to  become  citizens  of  this 
country,  but,  on  the  contrary,  seek  to  obtain  a  certain  sum  of  money,  which  they  consider  a  com- 
petence, and  with  it  return  to  Italy  or  Hungary.  I  have  seen  eight  of  these  people  and  one 
woman  living  in  a  small  house,  without  beds  or  furniture,  sleeping  on  the  floor,  aud  have  been  in- 
formed by  reliable  authority  that  these  nine  persons'  expenses  for  one  month  was  only  $27.  I  have 
seen  them  in  the  Frostburg  region  of  Maryland,  where  they  had  been  brought  by  agents,  who  en- 
gaged them  at  Castle  Garden,  living  in  a  wooden  building,  sleeping  on  bunks,  this  building  being 
fenced  in  to  prevent  them  being  communicated  with  by  the  people  whose  places  they  had  taken. 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  229 

The  diet  of  these  men  was  water  and  mush,  with  a  small  quantity  of  meat  on  Sunday.  These  men 
are  brought  into  competition  with  skilled  as  well  as  unskilled  labor,  and  it  is  fast  becoming  as  bad 
as  the  competition  of  the  Chinese  in  the  West.  A  demand  is  now  going  up  for  an  amendment  of 
the  Chinese  bill  in  such  particulars  as  it  has  been  shown  deficient.1' 

William  Leach,  of  Malaga,  N.  J.,  of  the  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said: 

"I  was  at  Malaga  last  year  when  certain  Belgians  were  brought  to  that  place.  It  was  our  duty 
to  find  out  from  them  if  the  situation  of  affairs  at  Malaga  had  been  made  known  to  them 
before  they  came,  or  whether  it  had  not  been  misrepresented  to  them.  When  we  attempted  to  ob- 
tain this  information  the  company  had  thirty-five  of  us  enjoined  by  the  courts  from  interfering 
with  them.  The  window  glass  workers  were  ordered  out  of  their  homes  in  midwinter  and  com- 
pelled to  move.  Last  spring  we  went  to  work,  the  Belgians  in  one  factory  and  the  citizens  in 
another.    They  have  since  left  Malaga,  the  firm  having  changed  managers." 

Ewile  Bouiluet,  of  Zanesville,  Ohio,  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said  : 

"I  was  hired  at  Antwerp  by  an  agent  of  Dean  F.  Williams,  of  Zanesville,  Ohio,  who  came  for  a 
set  of  men  (sixty).  When  I  went  to  see  him  I  asked  him  why  he  came  to  Europe  for  men.  He 
replied  '  that  men  were  scarce  and  work  plenty  in  the  United  States.'  I  told  him  we  would  expect 
the  same  wages  paid  in  the  United  States.  He  said  '  they  would  pay  the  New  York  tariff.'  When 
we  arrived  at  Zanesville  we  discovered  that  the  New  York  tariff  was  25  per  cent,  less  than  the  reg- 
ular price.  I  complained  to  the  company  of  this  misrepresentation  and  they  answered  that '  they 
did  not  authorize  the  payment  of  more  that  what  they  were  then  paying.'  At  Kent  the  company 
did  not  pay  the  price  agreed  upon.  They  brought  them  to  Kent  on  a  contract  for  three  years. 
The  men  were  not  permitted  to  associate  with  American  workingmen  lest  they  might  find  out  the 
true  state  of  affairs.  Two  of  these  men  were  arrested  and  put  in  jail  for  some  days  for  violating 
this  contract.  When  we  arrived,  a  friend  of  one  of  us  was  met  by  a  man  whom  he  knew  in  Europe. 
As  soon  as  they  commenced  to  talk  the  manager  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  party.  When  we  ar- 
rived at  Mansfield,  Ohio,  a  member  of  the  firm  came  into  the  car  and  inquired  if  any  of  us  could 
speak  English;  I  answered  that  'my  father  and  I  could.'  He  then  warned  us  not  to  talk  to 
the  men." 

Question  by  member  of  committee.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  wages  paid  these 
foreigners  and  Americans  ? 

Answer  by  John  Schlicker.    Between  28  and  50  per  cent. 

Question.    Did  any  of  these  people  show  a  disposition  to  become  citizens  ? 

Answer.    I  think  not. 

William  F.  Barclay,  representing  the  miners  of  the  coke  region  of  Pennsylvania,  said: 

"We  have  a  great  many  of  these  so  called  Hungarians.  They  are  not  Hungarians,  but  Sla- 
vonians. They  are  not  brought  to  our  region  on  a  written  contract.  There  is  an  agency  in  Pitts- 
burgh and  in  New  York  for  the  employment  of  these  people,  and  to  send  them  where  they  are 
called  for.  We  are  against  the  importation  of  these  people  because  their  influence  is  degrading. 
Firms  employ  these  people  in  preference  to  Americans  or  other  emigrants.  They  are  easily  im- 
posed upon,  not  5  per  cent,  of  them  being  able  to  read.  They  perform  this  soft  coal  mining  very 
well,  as  it  requires  little  skill.  They  have  usually  about  one  woman  to  every  ten  men.  Their 
habits  are  disgusting  in  the  extreme.  I  saw  and  counted  one  day  thirty-five  women  and  children, 
employed  forking  coke  and  working  about  the  ovens;  the  children  poorly  clad,  of  every  age  rang- 
ing from  five  years  upward.  They  do  not  work  on  Sunday.  To  illustrate  how  they  live  :  A  yard 
boss,  who  went  to  get  men  to  work,  got  thirty-seven  men  out  of  a  house  containing  four  small 
rooms.    They  had  no  beds,  but  laid  on  the  floor,  heads  and  tails,  I  suppose. 

"I  never  knew  one  of  these  men  to  stay  in  the  country.  They  spend  comparatively  nothing, 
saving  their  money  to  return  home;  even  when  sick  they  go  to  the  poorhouse,  until  at  last  the 
authorities  refused  to  longer  entertain  them  while  they  had  money.  They  will  eat  anything.  They 
hang  their  meat  out  in  the  sun,  that  it  may  become  soft  and  tainted.  The  business  men  of  the 
region  are  opposed  to  them.  They  get  the  same  wages  as  the  Americans,  except  when  they  work 
by  the  day;  then  they  are  paid  33  per  cent,  less,  which  is  all  they  are  worth.  This  importation  has 
reduced  the  price  of  mining,  and  makes  it  impossible  for  the  men  to  do  other  than  submit  to  what- 
ever the  operators  demand  or  require  of  them,  regardless  of  its  justness.  The  condition  of  the 
miners  and  cokemakers  generally  is  aggravated  by  the  company  stores  which  abound  in  the  dis- 
trict. I  priced  potatoes  before  I  left,  and  could  have  bought  them  of  an  outside  dealer  for  fifty 
cents  per  bushel,  while  the  price  in  the  company  stores  is  eighty  cents  per  bushel.  If  the  men  do 
not  deal  in  the  store  they  are  discharged. 

"I  never  met  one  of  these  Slavonians  who  could  speak  English.  We  tried  to  organize  the  men 
to  enforce  the  statutes  of  Pennsylvania,  but  it  was  a  failure.  The  companies  discharged  the  men 
who  were  active  in  the  matter.  They  were  blacklisted  and  refused  work  throughout  the  region. 
I  was  urged  at  another  time  to  get  up  a  strike  by  one  of  the  operators  so  that  the  price  of  coke 
might  be  raised. 


230  PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 

"  The  Hungarians  are  paid  sixty  cents  per  ton,  but  they  are  so  igmorant  that  they  do  not  know 
what  a  ton  is.  The  miners  are  wet,  and  these  people  work  from  1  o'clock  A.M.  to  7  P.M.  for  a  day. 
Americans  and  more  skilled  workmen  could  do  the  some  amount  of  work  in  eight  hours,  but  all 
have  to  wait  on  the  wagons,  the  filling  of  which  is  delayed  by  these  men,  thereby  putting  the 
skilled  and  the  unskilled  on  an  equality.  We  dare  not  lay  our  grievance  before  the  coke  manufac- 
turers, for  whoever  does  so  Mill  be  immediately  discharged.  We  are  opposed  to  strikes,  as  they 
are  of  no  use,  and  could  not  succeed  with  us  while  these  people  are  in  this  state  of  ignorance. 
Our  citizens  and  merchants  are  leaving  the  region.  The  conditions  are  becoming  insufferable. 
The  works  run  from  two  to  five  days  per  week,  and  the  wages  paid  about  $1.25  per  day,  or  gen- 
erally eight  tons  at  thirteen  cents  per  ton.  The  coke  manufacturers  are  now  trying  to  form  a 
syndicate,  that  they  may  monopolize  the  coke  business.  There  are  some  manufacturers  who  will 
not  employ  these  foreigners,  one  of  whom  lives  in  the  region." 

William  Ashton,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said: 

"  My  information  is  in  regard  to  importation  of  foreigners  i&  Baltimore,  Md.  These  men  were 
brought  under  a  contract;  they  were  window  glass  blowers.  The  first  importation  took  place  in 
1879;  forty-eight  were  then  brought  over  by  Swindell  Bros.  The  following  year  Baker  Bros,  im- 
ported seventeen,  King  Bros,  twenty-two,  and  Swindell  Bros,  twenty-three.  The  first  importation 
occurred  during  a  strike ;  there  was  no  strike  when  the  second  importation  occurred.  Some  of 
the  foreigners  refused  to  work  and  were  arrested,  but  discharged  before  a  hearing  was  had;  their 
clothing  was  retained  by  the  firm  and  it  was  weeks  before  they  could  secure  it.  They  were  kept 
locked  in  houses,  when  not  working,  and  could  not  be  seen  by  the  Americans.  Most  of  them  have 
since  returned  home,  some  being  sent  by  the  glassblowers'  association,  and  some  by  the  Belgian 
consul,  who  complained  bitterly  of  the  treatment  they  received.  The  effect  of  their  importation 
was  the  reduction  of  wages  about  12  per  cent.  An  injunction  was  issued  against  the  American 
Avorkmen  from  interfering  with  them  and  made  perpetual  by  Judge  Brown,  of  Baltimore.  Before 
these  men  were  imported  we  had  as  good  a  set  of  American  workmen  as  could  be  found  anywhere. 
The  system  in  vogue  in  Europe  and  America  differs  materially.  The  Europeans  work  according  to 
old  methods  and  processes;  in  fact,  they  bring  their  tools  and  moulds  with  them.  The  European 
workman  cannot  turn  out  within  35  per  cent,  as  much  ware  as  the  American  workman,  and  as  a 
result  do  not  or  are  not  able  to  fulfill  their  contract,  hence  the  employers  are  at  liberty  to  pay 
them  what  they  please." 

Val  Haas,  Baltimore,  Md.,  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said: 

"  The  situation  was  misrepresented  to  them;  some  of  them,  when  the  exact  situation  was  ex- 
plained to  them,  quit.  Two  Germans  who  quit  work  were  refused  their  clothes  and  were  arrested. 
I  have  been  called  up  at  night  by  these  men  to  explain  to  them  the  trouble,  as  we  could  not  get 
near  them  or  they  near  us,  so  that  an  understanding  might  be  had.  They  were  under  constant 
police  surveillance,  and  we  were  enjoined  from  interfering  with  them.  These  foreigners  were 
natives  of  France,  Belgium  and  Germany;  they  were  brought  in  three  different  parties.  In  1879, 
Baker  Bros,  brought  forty-eight,  and  King  &  Bros,  twenty-five.  Baker  Bros,  brought  a  second  lot 
of  twenty-five,  and  King  &  Bros,  and  Swindell  &  Brcs.,  twenty-three.  Previous  to  this  last  im- 
portation there  was  no  strike;  some  cf  these  men  are  here  yet,  others  have  gone  away.  The 
effect  has  been  a  12  per  cent,  reduction  of  wages." 

Charles  Leffler,  Baltimore,  Md.,  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said: 

"  My  statement  is  substantially  the  same  as  Messrs.  Ashton  and  Haas.  Mr.  Swindell  says  he 
does  not  want  the  foreigners  anymore;  they  accomplished  the  object  intended — the  reduction 
of  wages." 

J.  Campbell,  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  said: 

"  We  have  no  objection  to  these  men  coming  here  voluntarily,  but  we  object  to  them  coming 
under  contract,  and  to  reduce  American  wages." 

John  Schlicker,  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  W.  G.  W.  A.,  said  : 

"  The  difference  in  working  in  the  glass  industry  in  this  country  and  Europe  consists  in  the  fact 
that  there  they  have  two  factories  and  work  eleven  months  a  year.  I  have  worked  in  glass  works 
for  30  years  and  have  not  averaged  eight  months  per  year  in  that  time.  The  difference  in  wages  is 
not  material,  when  all  things  are  considered,  between  this  country  and  Europe.  At  Kent,  Ohio, 
these  imported  men,  are  working  on  Sunday." 

Fred.  Turner,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  secretary  of  Knights  of  Labor,  said  : 

"  It  is  the  viniversal  sentiment  that  the  bill  of  Mr.  Foran  should  be  passed.  The  importation  cf 
foreign  workmen  is  getting  as  bad  as  that  cf  the  Chinese.     We  have  not  the  slightest  objection  to 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  231 

their  voluntary  coming.  The  African  slave  was  better  off  than  are  these  people  under  some  of 
-these  contracts.  The  slave  had  some  one  to  look  after  his  welfare;  these  people  have  not.  We 
present  a  petition  to  the  committee  containing  35,000  names  of  persons  who  pray  for  relief  by  the 
passage  of  a  bill  to  remedy  this  matter." 

Frank  Porter,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  cotton  mill,  said  : 

"  I  voice  the  sentiment  of  New  England  and  ask  that  Mr.  Foran's  bill  be  passed.  The  manufac- 
turers of  New  England  have  imported  men,  time  after  time,  during  strikes,  from  England,  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  Canada,  whether  under  contract  or  not  we  are  not  able  to  prove,  but  we  believe 
they  were  imported  under  contract.  The  Canadians,  as  a  rule,  do  not  become  citizens,  but  return 
to  Canada." 

John  S.  McClelland,  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  telegraph  operator,  said  : 

"I  was  one  of  the  men  who  participated  in  the  late  strike  of  telegraph  operators.  The  telegraph 
companies  would  have  imported  foreign  telegraphers  if  they  could  have  gotten  them.  They  could 
.not  get  them  from  England  as  there  they  are  in  Government  service,  and  if  they  once  leave,  when 
they  return  they  are  forced  to  begin  at  the  bottom." 

F.  C.  Morgan,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  said : 

"  I  saw  an  agent,  when  I  was  in  Brazil,  in  1879,  trying  to  engage  the  natives  of  Brazil  to  come  to 
the  cotton  fields  of  the  United  States.     I  do  not  know  that  he  engaged  any  who  went." 

John  Costello  again  said  that  these  imported  workmen  signed  contracts,  waiving  the  benefits 
of  the  statutes  of  Pennsylvania,  which  were  passed  for  the  protection  of  workmen,  and  thereby  in 
their  ignorance  injuring  the  workingmen  and  nullifying  the  salutary  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  which 
were  enacted  to  protect  the  workmen  from  the  avarice  of  greedy  manufacturers. 

Copies  of  agreements  with  foreign  workmen,  executed  in  Belgium. 

No.  1. 

(Original  in  English.) 

Agreement  made  by  and  between  the  firm  of  Day,  Williams  &  Co.,  of  Kent,  Ohio,  of  the  first  part, 
and  each  of  the  signers  hereto  of  the  second  part,  exactly  as  if  a  separate  agreement  were  made 
between  said  firm  and  each  of  said  signers. 

Each  of  the  signers  of  the  second  part  agrees  and  promises  to  work  for  the  said  first  party  at  the 
business  of  window  glass  making  for  the  term  of  three  (3)  consecutive  years  beginning  January  1, 
.1880,  and  to  faithfully  perform  his  duties  ;  shall  be  paid  the  wages  currently  paid  by  the  New  York 
State  manufacturers.  Said  first  party  agrees  that  the  wages  of  each  flattener  shall  be  not  less  than 
at  the  rate  of  sixty  (60)  dollars  per  calendar  month,  and  that  the  wages  of  each  cutter  shall  be  not 
less  than  at  the  rate  of  fifty  (50)  dollars  per  calendar  month  for  work  actually  performed,  or  during 
the  fire.  It  is  agreed  that  said  first  party  shall  retain  ten  (10)  per  cent,  of  the  wages  of  each  and 
every  workman  until  the  expiration  of  this  contract,  as  a  guaranty  of  its  faithful  performance  ; 
said  ten  (10)  per  cent,  to  be  forfeited  by  each  and  every  workman  who  shall  fail  to  perform  the 
conditions  of  this  contract.  It  is  also  agreed  that  said  first  party  shall  advance  the  passago  money 
of  the  party  of  the  second  part  to  Kent,  Ohio,  and  that  in  case  any  workman  shall  fail  to  perform 
the  conditions  of  this  contract,  he  shall  repay  to  said  first  party  the  amount  of  said  passage  money. 
It  is  also  agreed  that  said  first  party  shall  have  the  right  to  discharge  any  workman  who  shall 
neglect  his  work  through  drunkenness  or  idleness,  or  who  shall  attempt  to  create  dissatisfaction 
among  the  workmen.  The  said  Day,  Williams  &  Co.,  its  successors  and  assigns,  however  con- 
stituted, shall  always  be  taken  as  the  party  of  the  first  part. 

Signed  by  said  first  party  by  its  firm  name  and  by  each  of  the  signers  of  the  second  party  by  his 
-own  name,  as  of  this  second  day  of  December,  1879.  It  is  agreed  that  the  flatteners  shall  receive 
.$30  (thirty  dollars)  per  month  for  all  work  done  other  than  flattening. 

DAY,  WILLIAMS  &  CO. 

HENRY  PIERRE. 

ADOLPH  BRESSON. 

AUG¥ST  COENEN. 


232  PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 

No.  2. 

(Original  in  German.) 

Agreement  between  the  firm  of  Swindell  Bros,  of  the  first  part,  and  John  Schmidt,  gatherer,  and 

Carl  Wagner,  blower,  of  the  second  part. 

The  undersigned,  of  the  second  part,  covenants  and  agrees  with  the  party  of  the  first  part  that 
they  will  for  two  consecutive  years,  beginning  January  1st,  1882,  work  and  duly  perform  such 
duties  as  instructed  by  the  party  of  the  first  part,  or  his  superintendents.  The  party  of  the  first 
part  covenants  and  agrees  to  pay  the  undersigned,  who  may  duly  perform  their  duties,  the  price 
generally  paid  by  Baltimore  manufacturers  for  the  size  of  16  by  24  inches,  and  all  sheets  shall  be 
estimated  at  8  sheet  of  36  by  54  in.  for  100  square  feet.  The  party  of  the  first  part  covenants  and 
agrees  that  the  wages  of  each  glass  blower  shall  be  an  average  of  $80  per  calendar  month,  on  con- 
dition that  he  makes  180  boxes  of  100  square  feet  per  calendar  month.     » 

The  gatherer  shall  receive  65  per  cent,  of  the  sum  paid  the  blower  for  wages  per  calendar  month 
for  actual  work  performed  during  the  fire.  It  is  agreed  that  the  party  of  the  first  part  shall  retain 
10  per  cent,  of  the  wages  of  each  and  every  workman  until  the  expiration  of  this  contract  as  a 
guarantee  of  the  faithful  performance  of  the  provisions  of  this  contract.  The  aforesaid  10  per 
cent,  shall  be  forfeited  by  each  and  every  workman  who  shall  fail  to  comply  with  the  provisions  of 
this  contract. 

It  is  further  agreed  that  the  party  of  the  first  part  shall  advance  the  passage  money  of  the  par- 
ties of  the  second  part. 

It  is  further  agreed  that  the  party  of  the  first  part  have  the  right  to  discharge  any  of  the  work- 
men for  drunkenness,  or  neglect  of  duty,  or  for  disturbing  the  peace,  or  creating  dissatisfaction 
among  them,  or  for  joining  any  association  of  American  workmen. 

The  said  Swindell  Bros.,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  shall  be  considered  the  parties  of  the  first  part, 
and  they  agree  to  pay  each  blower  $12  per  week  and  the  gatherer  $9  per  week,  on  condition  that 
each  perform  his  work  faithfully  at  every  blowing.  The  parties  of  the  first  part  agrees  to  make 
monthly  settlements  with  the  parties  of  the  second  part,  after  the  advances  for  passage,  &c,  shall 
have  been  repaid.  Provided  you  faithfully  perform  your  work  for  the  term  of  contract  (two 
years),  we  will  pay  back  the  passage  money  from  Europe  to  America. 

Antwerp,  Dec.  15,  1882. 

SWINDELL  BROS, 
YOHONN  SCHMIDT, 

Gatherer. 

CARL  WAGENER, 

Blower. 

Notwithstanding  the  admitted  necessity  for  the  speedy  passage  of  this  bill  the 
Senate  failed  to  take  action  on  it. 

The  hill  relative  to  the  Eight-hour  act  was  amended  and  passed  by  the  House. 
The  Senate  took  no  action.  The  other  measures  are  on  the  calendar  for  consid- 
eration next  session.  At  no  session  of  Congress  has  so  much  attention  been 
paid  to  measures  for  the  benefit  and  protection  of  the  wage  worker  of  the 
country. 

In  contrast  with  the  zeal  of  the  Democratic  House  on  Labor  questions  is  the 
neglect  and  indifference  of  the  Republican  Senate ;  the  failure  of  the  47th  Con- 
gress to  take  action  on  labor  measures ;  the  utter  disregard  by  the  administration 
to  enforce  the  plain  mandates  of  the  Eight-hour  law;  the  failure  to  stop  the  im- 
portation of  contract  labor,  and  the  opposition  to  the  Chinese  bill.  The  feeling 
of  that  party  was  shown  by  the  act  approved  July  4,  1864,  for  which  it  is  pre- 
sumed Mr.  Blaine  voted,  as  there  as  there  is  no  vote  recorded  against  it.  Con- 
cerning this  act  Mr.  O'Neill,  of  Missouri,  said,  June  19,  1884: 

' '  I  wish  now  to  refer  to  one  of  the  curiosities  of  American  legislation  which 
has  attracted  my  attention.  In  an  act  entitled  '  'An  act  to  encourage  immigra- 
tion," approved  July  4,  1864,  I  find  the  following  provisions: 

Be  it  enacted,  &c,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  author- 
ized, by  and  with  the  advice  and  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  to  appoint  a  commis- 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  233 

sioner  of  immigration,  who  shall  be  subject  to  the  direction  of  the  Department 
of  State,  &c. 

The  remainder  of  that  section  relates  only  to  clerks,  salaries,  and  tenure  of 
office,  but  the  second  section  is  very  interesting: 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  contracts  that  shall  be  made  by  emi- 
grants to  the  United  States  in  foreign  countries,  in  conformity  to  regulations  that 
may  be  established  by  the  said  commissioner  -whereby  emigrants  shall  pledge  the 
wages  of  their  labor  for  a  term  not  exceeding  twelve  months,  to  repay  the  ex- 
penses of  their  emigration,  shall  be  held  to  be  valid  in  law,  and  may  be  enforced 
in  the  courts  of  the  United  States  or  of  the  several  States  and  Territories;  and  such 
advances,  if  so  stipulated  in  the  contract,  and  the  contract  be  recorded  in  the  Re- 
corder's office  in  the  county  where  the  emigrant  shall  settle,  shall  operate  as  a 
lien  upon  any  land  thereafter  acquired,  until  liquidated  by  the  emigrant,  whether 
under  the  homestead  law  when  the  title  is  consummated,  or  on  property  otherwise 
acquired  by  the  emigrant ;  but  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  deemed  to  au- 
thorize any  contract  contravening  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  cre- 
ating in  any  way  the  relation  of  slavery  or  servitude. 

Why  insert  the  words  "creating  in  any  way  the  relation  of  slavery  or  servi- 
tude "  but  for  the  reason  that  they  well  knew  that  it  was  a  death  blow  aimed  at 
American  workmen  at  the  instance  of  wealthy  capitalists  whose  only  excuse  was 
their  greed  ? 

At  a  time  when  the  Republican  party  was  in  full  control  of  all  branches  of  the 
Government  it  became  a  law,  and  is  a  pioneer  work  in  encouraging  the  introduc- 
tion of  alien  imported  labor,  to  destroy  American  labor.  And  yet  at  the  national 
convention  recently  held  at  Chicago  they  incorporated  in  their  platform  a 
provision  condemning  the  importation  of  aliens  under  contract  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States.     How  consistent  ! 

A  Member.     What  is  the  date  of  that  act  ? 

Mr.  O'Neill.,  of  Missouri.  July  4,  1864  ;  and  I  believe  it  remained  a  law  for 
many  years,  though  an  appropriation  could  never  be  obtained  to  carry  it  into 
effect. 

Now,  the  4th  of  July  was  a  patriotic  day  to  plant  in  the  statute  books  of 
this  country  the  most  infamous  law  that  could  be  framed,  and  which  meant  no 
more  than  servitude,  which  meant  to  create  a  lien  on  everything  that  an  unfor- 
tunate immigrant  could  acquire  after  he  came  here  in  response  to  their  desire  for 
cheap  labor.  I  think  it  proper  to  refer  to  that,  when  I  see  this  canting,  hypocritical 
party  now  masquerading  before  the  country  as  having  been  always  the  friend  of 
labor  !  Heaven  save  workingmen  from  such  friends,  which  even  at  this  session, 
in  the  branch  of  legislation  that  they  control,  have  emasculated  the  labor  bureau 
bill  demanded  by  every  labor  organization  of  the  country. 

What  a  contrast  is  presented  in  the  present  Democratic  House,  creating  for  the 
first  time  in  Congress  a  distinct  committee  on  labor,  a  majority  of  which  com- 
mittee I  am  proud  to  say  are  men  who  worked  at  the  bench  as  mechanics,  and 
who  know  from  experience  exactly  what  the  workingmen  of  this  country  desire, 
and  who  have  favorably  reported  back  every  measure  demanded  by  the  labor 
interests.  They  are  not  demagogues,  as  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  wouldseen 
to  intimate,  and  they  tell  you  here  to-day,  sir,  that  while  the  constitutional 
lawyers  in  this  House  may  find  flaws  in  this  bill  the  principle  is  right,  and  that  it 
is  exactly  what  the  mechanics  of  this  country  ask  for  at  your  hands. 


234  PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 

THE  CHINESE  QUESTION. 


Party  lines  were  not  strictly  adhered  to  in  the  consideration  of  the  Chinese 
bill,  but  the  record  of  the  debates  and  votes  in  both  the  Senate  and  House  shows 
the  Democratic  party  is  entitled  to  the  chief  credit  for  the  earnest  stand  it  made 
against  the  degradation  of  American  labor  and  the  impending  danger  to  Ameri- 
can society  and  theories  of  government. 

The  Republican  sentimentalism  upon  this  serious  question,  which  should  be 
considered  from  the  standpoint  of  practical  statesmanship,  was  expressed  by 
Senator  Hoar  in  his  speech  in  the  Senate  March  1st,  1882. 

He  said  : 

*'Mr.  President:  A  hundred  years  ago  the  American  people  founded  a 
nation  upon  the  moral  law.  They  overthrew  by  force  the  authority  of  their 
sovereign,  and  separated  themselves  from  the  country  which  had  planted 
them,  alleging  as  their  justification  to  mankind  certain  propositions  which 
they  held  to  be  self  evident. 

"They  declared — and  that  declaration  is  the  one  foremost  action  of  human 
listory — that  all  men  equally  derive  from  their  Creator  the  right  to  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness;  that  equality  in  the  right  to  that  pursuit  is  the  fundamen- 
tal rule  of  the  Divine  justice  in  its  application  to  mankind;  that  its  security 
is  the  end  for  which  governments  are  formed,  and  its  destruction  good  cause 
why  governments  should  be  overthrown. 

********** 

"The  insertion  of  the  phrase  'the  pursuit  of  happiness,'  in  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  natural  rights  for  securing  which  government  is  ordained,  and 
the  denial  of  which  constitutes  just  cause  for  its  overthrow,  was  intended  as 
an  explicit  affirmation  that  the  right  of.  every  human  being  who  obeys  the 
equal  laws  to  go  everywhere  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  that  his  welfare  may 
require  is  beyond  the  rightful  control  of  government.  It  is  a  birthright  de- 
rived immediately  from  Him  who  'made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before 
appointed  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation.'  He  made,  so  our  fathers  held, 
of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  men.  He  gave  them  the  whole  face  of  the 
earth  whereon  to  dwell.  He  reserved  for  Himself  by  His  agents  heat  and 
cold,  and  climate,  and  soil,  and  water,  and  land  to  determine  the  bonds 
of  their  habitation." 

The  Democratic  doctrine  was  well  expressed  in  the  House  on  the  22d  of 
3tarch,  by  Mr.  Tucker,  of  Virginia,  who  said  : 

"It  is  said  by  gentlemen  here,  and  I  heard  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
Iowa  [Mr.  Kasson]  this  morning  say,  that  this  bill  was  contrary  to  the  great 
principles  of  American  policy  ;  which  is,  to  let  everybody  come  at  his  pleasure 
to  this  '  land  of  the  free  ana  this  home  of  the  brave,' to  this  asylum  for  the  op- 
pressed and  the  downtrodden  everywhere. 

'■*  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  a  proper  sympathy  with  these  sentiments,  and  while  ac- 
cording much  to  them  in  our  general  policy,  and  giving  large  privilege  to  im- 
migrants from  other  lands,  yet  when  the  right  to  come  is  claimed  for  them  I  pro- 
test against  it  as  no  part  of  our  policy,  I  do  not  so  read  the  Constitution  of  my 
country.    Look  at  its  preamble  : 

We  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  in- 
sure domestic  tranquility,  provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  the  Consti- 
tution for  the  United  States  of  America. 

"  The  men  who  formed  that  Constitution  formed  it  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States  ;  for  the  people  of  the  several  States  who  were  united  by  the  former  ar- 
ticles of  confederation,  but  who  were  to  be  continued  in  unity  under  this  Con- 
stitution. 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  235 

*'  Gentlemen  quote  Scripture  for  their  purpose  : 

God  hath  made  of  one — 

'•That  is  the  new  translation  contained  in  the  Revision  which  was  admitted  free  of  duty  the 
other  day,  and  therefore  I  may  so  quote  it  as  by  authority  of  Congress — 

"  God  hath  made  of  one  all  the  nations  of  men  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  the  earth — 

"Very  well,  that  is  all  true  ;  but  gentlemen  forget  to  quote  the  remainder  of 
the  passage — 

having  determined  their  appointed  seasons  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation. 

"  What  are  these  determined  bounds?  Asia  for  the  Mongolian  and  Semetic  races;  Africa  for 
the  sons  of  Ham;  Europe  for  the  Caucasians  and  America,  thank  God,  for  the  great  Caucasian 
family  of  nations.     [Applause.] 

*********** 

"I  hold  that  American  statesmen  to  be  the  best  humanitarian  who  is  a  legistor  for  oar  own 
country,  who  attends  to  the  business  and  looks  to  the  interests  of  our  own  people,  and  who 
strives  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberty  and  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  citizens  of  this 
great  Union  of  States.     [Applause.] 

*********** 

"  And  yet  what  is  the  doctrine  we  hear  advocated  on  this  floor  ?  It  is  that  the  Chinaman  is  the 
cheaper  laborer,  and  therefore  he  should  be  allowed  to  come  into  this  country  and  compete  with 
our  laborers.  And  gentlemen  who  hold  to  the  doctrine  (and  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  this)  that 
we  ought  to  have  a  tariff  high  enough  to  protect  the  American  laborer  against  the  pauper  laborer 
of  Europe  are  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season  in  advocacy  of  a  policy  which  would  import 
millions  of  the  poor  laborers  of  China  against  whom  our  laborers  at  home  must  run  the  gauntlet 
vof  a  destructive  competition. 

******  ***** 

"  With  your  leave,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  will  present  one  other  point  and  then  close.  This  is  a  graver 
question  than  one  merely  of  trade.  It  is  a  question  of  the  permanence,  the  peaceful  and  loving 
permanence  of  the  American  Union.  The  States  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  separated  from  us  by  the 
^Rocky  Mountains,  are  open  to  Asiatic  immigration  ;  we  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  are  open  to  Euro- 
pean immigration.  Now,  if  these  two  tides  of  immigration  are  allowed  to  come  in  to  an  unlimited 
extent  the  effect  will  be  that  while  we  on  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  will  be  Caucasian  in  our  civiliza- 
~tion  the  Pacific  States  will  become  Asiatic,  and  how  can  a  union  continues  between  States  on  the 
Tacific  dominated  by  Asiatic  ideas  and  States  on  the  Atlantic  dominated  by  the  free  principles  of 
the  Caucasian  family  ?"     [Applause.] 

Senator  Maxey,  of  Texas,  stated  the  case  in  the  Senate  on  the  3d  of  March,  as 
follows : 

"  Mr.  President,  I  desire  to  place  on  record  in  a  very  few  words  the  reasons  which  will  control 
one  in  supporting  the  measure  now  before  the  Senate.  I  beg  to  say  that  in  that  vote  I  am  not  con- 
trolled or  influenced  by  any  ecstatic  sentimentality  or  sublimated  philanthropy  which  would  cause 
one  to  welcome  into  this  country  consecrated  to  liberty  regulated  by  law,  and  to  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, all  the  people  of  all  climes  and  colors  and  of  all  nationalities,  including  Chinese,  and  without 
regard  to  their  adaptability  to  our  institutions  and  form  of  Government.  My  views  have  never 
extended  that  far,  but  rather  I  believed  that — 

If  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the 
faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel. 

"  '  I  love  my  own  country  better  than  any  other  country,  and  my  own  race  better  than  any  other 
race,'  was  the  sentiment  uttered  by  Mr.  Clay,  and  it  expresses  precisely  the  views  I  entertain,  I 
welcome  cordially  the  Englishman,  the  Scotchman,  the  Irishman,  the  Frenchman,  the  German,  and 
men  of  my  own  race  and  color  wheresoever  dispersed  around  the  globe.  They  come  among  us  to 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  free  government,  and  soon  become  part  of  us.  They  make  valuable  addi- 
tions to  the  body  politic,  but  I  trust  that  the  refuse  and  dregs  of  the  countless  hordes  of  China 
will  never  find  a  welcome  here." 

The  Democratic  doctrine  upon  this  subject  was  further  expressed  by  Senator 
Test  of  Missouri,  who  said  upon  this  floor  of  the  Senate,  April  27th,  as  follows: 

"  When  the  junior  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  [Mr.  Hoar,]  for  whose  learning  and  eloquence 
I  have  the  greatest  respect,  (and  I  read  his  speech  last  night,  for  I  was  detained  from  the  Senate 
at  the  time  it  was  delivered;  I  read  it  with  great  pleasure  and  great  attention,)  declare*?  that  thi3 
country  is  to  become  the  great  misa,'onary  station  of  the  world,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independ* 


236  PROTECTION   OF    LABOR. 


ence  meant  that  our  institutions  were  made  not  for  Americans  and  for  their  descendants,  but  for  the 
whole  world  to  come  here  and  take  possession  of  this  continent,  bought  with  our  blood  and  our 
treasure  and  that  of  our  fathers,  I  deny  the  doctrine,  assthetical  as  it  may  be,  and  much  as  it  appeals 
to  the  feeling  of  missionary  Christianity  among  our  people. 

1 '  Sir,  this  is  a  question  of  practical  statesmanship.  I  am  first  for  my  own  people  against  the 
world.  I  am  first  for  the  American  system,  which  protects  the  labor  and  the  interest  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  before  all  others. 

"What  is  this  Chinese  immigration  ?  Are  they  citizens  of  the  United  States?  Do  they  come 
^.ere  to  meet  the  reciprocal  obligation  between  our  people  and  the  Government  to  which  they  owe 
allegiance  ?  I  understand  the  doctrine  of  government  is  that  government  protects  the  citizen  in 
life,  liberty  and  property,  and  the  citizen  assumes  the  responsibilities  and  duties  of  allegiance  to 
the  government  and  a  part  in  the  government  of  the  country  itself.  The  greatest  responsibility 
and  the  greatest  duty  of  any  dweller  in  these  United  States  is  his  share  in  the  Government  and  the 
legislation  of  this  great  country.  Do  the  Chinese  come  here  to  share  in  these  responsibilities  ? 
They  are  parasites,  like  those  insects  which  fasten  themselves  upon  vegetables  or  upon  animals 
and  feed  and  feed  until  satiety  causes  them  to  release  their  hold.  They  come  to  this  country  not 
to  partake  in  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship;  they  come  here  with  no  love  for  our  institutions; 
they  do  not  hold  intercourse  with  the  people  of  the  United  States  except  for  gain;  they  do  not 
homologate  in  any  degree  with  them.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  parasites  when  they  come,  para- 
sites while  they  are  here,  and  parasites  when  they  go. 

************* 

"  Not  in  the  learned  and  eloquent  speech  of  the  junior  Senator  from  Massachusetts  does  he  meet 
the  proposition  as  I  have  put  it.  Nowhere  in  this  whole  debate  in  either  House  of  Congress  has 
the  evidence  been  brought  that  the  Chinese  come  here  for  any  other  purpose  but  to  fatten  upon  the 
people  of  the  United  States  and  carry  their  plunder  back  with  them.  They  are  not  of  us;  they 
are  not  with  us.  They  cannot  be  made  American  citizens  by  any  process  known  to  our  laws  or 
even  to  the  laws  of  God  himself.  They  are  made  for  a  different  destiny.  They  are  crystallized  in 
their  habits,  and  their  opinions. 

**********  ,** 

;'  Mr.  President,  for  myself,  when  my  people  of  the  Pacific  States,  blood  of  my  blood  and  bone 
of  my  bone,  call  to  me,  'Deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this  death,  deliver  us  from  this  incubus  and 
these  fungi  which  are  fastened  upon  us,'  I  shall  not  be  deaf  to  the  appeal.  As  Prentiss,  of  Missis- 
sippi, said  once,  '  I  am  first  for  my  own  hearth,  then  for  my  country,  then  my  State,  then  for  the 
Union,  and  then  for  the  world.1  Sir,  in  the  concentric  circles  of  the  human  heart  comes  at  last  the 
formation  of  a  great  Government  and  a  great  State.  Take  away  the  individuality,  the  home  feel- 
ing, the  home  love  of  a  man,  and  what  is  he  ?  I  oppose  woman  suffrage  because  it  brings  down  the 
deity  of  home,  woman,  as  wife  and  mother.  I  oppose  it  because  it  destroys  all  that  is  conservative 
and  sacred  in  society.  . 

"  For  the  same  reason,  among  others,  I  oppose  Chinese  immigration.  They  have  no  homes  with 
us;  they  come  here  to  carry  back  $45,000,000  annually  from  the  people  of  California,  and  leave  be- 
hind them  only  the  memory  of  their  vile  habits  and  their  most  infamous  doctrines. 

"  To  the  thrifty  German,  the  generous  and  gallant  Celt,  the  hardy  Scandinavian,  to  all  who  come 
to  share  the  responsibilities  and  work  out  the  problem  of  our  civilization  and  destiny,  to  all  who 
seek  home  and  shelter  in  our  vast  domain,  fling  wide  the  portals;  but  to  the  people  that  come  not 
for  homes  or  shelter  but  only  for  gain,  who  have  no  share  in  our  destiny,  no  love  for  our  institu- 
tions, no  reverence  for  our  religion,  we  have  the  right  to  say,  and  do  say,  '  You  have  no  lot  or  part  in 
this  great  matter.' 

In  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  April  25th,  Senator  Morgan  (Democrat)  said: 

"  There  is  no  mere  sentimentality  on  our  side  of  this  question.  We  are  driven  by  facts  which 
we  cannot  resist  or  avoid,  to  the  conclusion  that  it  has  became  a  solemn  necessity  on  our  part  to 
protect  the  Caucasian  race  on  this  continent  against  the  intrusion  of  the  Oriental  people.  We 
make  no  war  against  a  man  because  he  is  black  or  white,  or  red,  or  yellow;  because  he  speaks  one 
dialect  or  another.  Ours  is  the  expression  of  a  firm  and  solid  conviction  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  under  its  peculiar  organism  is  designed  for  a  higher  class  of  intelligence  and  vir- 
tue than  that  which  belongs  to  the  people  who  are  migrating  to  this  country  from  Asia  in  such 
swarms.  We  believe  in  the  sanctity  of  the  patrimony  handed  down  to  us  by  our  fathers.  We  be- 
lieve in  its  value  morally,  socially,  and  materially.  We  believe  that  it  is  onr  right  and  privilege,  in 
competition  with  the  great  race  to  which  we  belong,  to  move  this  continent  and  this  hemisphere  to 
the  front  of  the  advanced  march  of  civilization  in  such  manner  as  to  add  to  the  glorious  renown 
which  this  people  have  already  won  in  the  historjr  of  mankind,  and  we  do  not  wish  nor  do  we  pro- 
pose to  be  obstructed  in  this  career  by  the  iutroduction  of  a  class  of  men  who  have  no  claim  upoft 
US  except  upon  some  vagary  of  diseased  and  mawkish  sensibility." 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR.  237 

A  more  practical  view  was  taken  by  the  Democratic  side.  Mr.  Flower  (Dem.), 
of  New  York,  pointed  out  the  effect  upon  the  laboring  classes  in  the  following 
language  : 

"When  I  hear  Republicans  who  will  go  to  the  polls  shouting  protection  to  American  industries; 
when  I  hear  the  men  who  boast  of  their  kind  patronage  and  fatherly  protection  to  American  labor; 
when  I  hear  these  men  protest  against  a  bill  looking  to  the  expulsion  of  pauper  labor  from  our 
midst;  when  I  hear  them  sound  the  trumpet  of  the  coolie  system  and  the  principle  of  freedom 
together;  when  I  see  them  attempting  to  deprive  the  American  laborer  of  his  employment  by 
introducing  a  class  of  '  helots  '  ;  when  I  see  them  trying  to  drive  our  native  born  and  adopted  citi- 
zens from  their  vocations  by  the  aid  of  mercenaries;  when  I  see  them  advocating  protection  and 
at  the  same  time  importing  labor  machines  free  of  duty,  I  can  neither  doubt  ^their  inconsistency 
nor  trust  their  disinterestedness. 

"  The  strongest  instinct  of  the  human  race  is  self  preservation.  The  nest,  love  of  offspring. 
When  you  ask  men  to  cut  off  the  comforts  of  their  homes,  to  decrease  the  advantages  their  children 
enjoy,  to  go  out  and  work  in  competition  with  a  pauper  or  a  slave,  to  welcome  to  their  land  of 
comfort  and  civilization  a  heathen  coming  to  reduce  them  to  his  level,  when  you  ask  this  in  the 
name  of  liberty  and  equal  rights  you  profane  their  names. 

"  Liberty  and  equal  rights  are  liberty  and  equal  rights  of  men,  not  of  slaves,  not  of  coolies. 
The  freedom  of  an  eating,  drinking,  opium  smoking,  working  automaton  is  not  the  freedom  which 
our  citizens  enjoy.  The  rights  of  a  well-worked  machine  are  not  their  rights  ;  they  have  higher 
rights  and  broader  liberties,  and  they  use  them.  They  have  the  chance  of  education  and  of  pro- 
motion ;  they  have  the  liberty  of  self  protection  against  injustice.  Ask  them  to  weigh  these 
rights,  these  liberties,  these  advantages  against  the  hypocritical  sentiment  which  would  leave  their 
lives  one  bitter,  ceaseless  struggle  with  starvation,  and  I  am  confident  the  veil  will  be  torn  from 
the  idol,  and  the  philantrophic  schemer,  unmasked,  will  stand  out  in  his  true  colors.  My  vote 
shall  go  toward  closing  the  gap  between  capital  and  labor  on  the  American  continent.  The  gap 
has  become  too  broad  already.  I  am  in  favor  of  any  measure  that  will  ameliorate  and  elevate 
labor,  and  I  shall  vote  for  this  bill  on  that  principle." 

Mr.  Curtin  (Dem.),  of  Pennsylvania,  also  presented  the  Democratic  view  of  the 
question  from  the  standpoint  of  practical  statesmanship.  He  said,  in  a  speech 
delivered  in  the  House,  March  23,  1882  : 

"Disguise  it  as  you  will,  conceal  or  cover  it  with  the  humanitarian  principles  underlying  our 
structure  of  government,  .summon  from  the  history  of  the  past,  as  has  been  done  on  this  floor  dur- 
ing the  long  debate,  the  sublime  utterances  of  the  Continental  Congress  through  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  what  is  the  question  we  are  to  meet  on  our  votes  on  this  measure  ?  It  is  sentiment 
and  only  sentiment ;  and  it  fades  before  the  wonderful  growth  and  changing  interests  of  the 
country,  its  progress,  its  wealth,  its  great  future,  and  the  true  logic  of  the  necessities  of  the  con- 
dition of  our  people  and  government  now  present,  as  did  the  silver  tones  of  the  great  bell  when 
the  fathers  of  the  Republic  sealed  their  immortal  fame  in  the  declaration,  and  rung  out  the  pro- 
clamation of  liberty  and  equality  to  all  humanity.  And  here  we  are  in  the  presence  of  the  ques- 
tion which,  I  repeat,  is  the  protection  of  American  labor.  Do  we  prefer  tm  have  100,000  Chinamen 
take  the  place  of  100,000  American  laborers,  part  and  parcel  of  the  body  politic,  owing  allegiance 
to  our  Government,  with  the  right  of  the  ballot,  insuring  for  their  children  our  free  education,  and 
with  American  hopes  and  aspirations  ?" 

"  I  say  to  my  friends  on  the  other  side  if  you  are  in  favor  of  protecting  labor 
you  now  have  the  opportunity. 

"  It  is  said  on  this  floor,  and  it  is  a  sentiment  which  can  bear  repetition,  that  we  opened  the  por- 
tals of  our  Government  and  invited  the  oppressed  people  of  all  the  world  to  come  here  in  peaceful 
approch  and  enjoy  our  true  civil  and  religious  liberty  and  the  dead  level  of  American  social  organ- 
ization ;  and  yet  who  would  for  a  moment  believe  in  that  liberal  declaration  which  is  claimed  in 
its  behalf  in  this  discuciion. 

"  We  would  not  suffer  paupers  or  criminals  or  diseased  people  to  come  here  to  spread  contagion 
or  disturb  us  by  crime  in  order  to  make  this  continent  a  great  reformatory  asylum,  which  it  would 
become  if  the  declarations  of  gentlemen  on  this  floor  were  carried  to  their  full  and  logical  conclu- 
sions. We  might  reform  such  people  and  cure  their  diseases,  but  they  might  infuse  their  virus 
into  the  health  and  morality  of  the  American  people. 

"  I  have  said,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  it  is  a  common  and  favorite  topic,  howc  er  sincere,  to  speak  of 
labor,  and  very  much  has  been  said  of  its  power  and  its  demands  for  just  protection  by  and 
through  the  Government.     This  Government  should  give  protection  to  the  laboring  classes  in  any 


238 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 


enactment  of  this  Congress.  The  object  of  previous  legislation  has  generally  been  the  protection: 
of  capital,  and  the  protection  of  their  interests  the  incident.  Sir,  we  have  given  away  empires  to 
corporations.  We  raise  subsidies.  We  extend  the  credit  of  our  Government  to  assist  centralized 
and  incorporated  capital,  and  we  protect  the  products  of  our  own  ingenuity  and  industry  by  im- 
posing duties  on  foreign  competition  when  we  raise  revenue.  Of  that  I  do  not  complain,  be- 
cause I  know  capital  offers  enterprises  in  which  labor  will  find  employment  and  pay.  And,  sir, 
if  the  centralization  of  power  and  of  capital,  which  I  must  not  think  that  American  citizens 
look  upon  with  satisfaction  for  the  future  of  this  country,  and  if  we  do  not  direct  the  legislation 
made  to  the  protection  of  all  classes  engaged  in  and  necessary  to  develop  our  resources  in  which. 
capital  is  invited  to  active  employment,  we  fail  in  our  duty. 

************ 

"Now,  sir,  it  is  not  likely  to  occur,  but  it  is  possible  to  bring  50,000  Chinamen  from  California 
and  settle  them  down  in  Massachusetts,  at  Lowell  or  Lynn  or  Fall  River  or  other  enterprising 
towns,  where  they  are  as  busy  as  bees  in  their  productive  industries,  and  thus  displace  50,000 
Massachusetts  workmen  and  laborer.  I  apprehend  the  enlightened  workmen  who  now  make 
the  flourishing  cities  I  have  mentioned  so  prosperous  and  yield  such  plentiful  returns  to 
the  capital  invested  in  their  manufacturing  establishments,  I  apprehend,  sir,  that  strikes 
might  be  expected,  and  John  Chinaman  would  not  fare  better,  or  as  well,  in  the  land  and 
under  the  protection  of  the  steady  habits  and  exalted  political  ideas  of  the  Puritan;  and  the 
violent  denunciation  of  the  enlightened  Yankee  orator  would  dwarf  into  harmless,  inane 
prattle,  the  crude  oratory  of  the  shambles  and  the  sand  lots  of  California.  [Laughter  and  loud, 
applause.]  Then,  sir,  they  would  scarcely  entertain  the  sympathy  that  now  goes  out  with  such 
generosity,  and  in  the  expression  of  which  their  members  on  this  floor  are  so  eloquent,  toned 
and  beautified  by  the  perfection  of  their  language. 

"  If,  then,  the  introduction  of  forty  or  fifty  thousand  Chinamen  would  interfere  with  the  rights 
or  the  interests  or  happiness  or  ability  to  work  in  New  England,  where  so  much  of  their  prosperity 
depends  on  labor,  we  have  the  right,  nay,  it  is  our  duty,  when  the  people  of  a  great  State,  one  of 
the  great  sovereignties  which  make  up  our  Gouvernment,  ask  for  relief,  to  grant  it  if  in  our 
power.  If  New  England  could  not  tolerate  such  an  invasion,  and  the  Chinamen  in  thousands 
should  be  carried  to  the  South  by  capital,  seeking  cheap  labor  ;  or  if  he  should  go  there  to  a 
climate  adopted  to  his  nature  and  work  and  production,  in  harmony  with  his  life  and  teachings, 
what  would  become  of  the  colored  man,  and  what  of  the  poor  white  man  of  that  section  ?  Who 
would  inflict  such  a  grievous  wrong  on  the  black  man,  the  ward  of  the  nation,  and  take  from  him. 
the  interests,  the  teachings,  and  sympathy  of  the  white  man,  his  real  friend  ?  Such  a  calamity  is 
not  to  be  for  a  moment  contemplated  to  the  colored  man  of  this  nation. 

"  I  will  most  heartily  give  my  vote  for  this  bill ;  and  accepting  the  principle  as  admitted  by  all 
the  gentlemen  who  have  discussed  this  question  that  we  have  the  right  to  put  a  limitation  on  the 
immigration  of  the  Chinese  people  under  the  treaty  with  that  nation,  a  question  I  need  not  now 
discuss,  I  will  vote  for  twenty  years'  suspension  of  immigration  because,  first,  we  assert  the  right  ; 
we  believe  the  representations  made  by  all  the  people  of  the  Pacific  coast  to  be  true,  and  they  are 
our  own  people,  and  as  they  are  our  best  judges  of  the  limitations  as  to  time,  I  yield  any  judgment 
I  might  have  to  the  better  judgment  of  those  who  should  understand  this  question.  When  we 
concede  to  their  judgment  we  give  it  force  and  effect  by  our  legislation  in  this  Congress.  [Great 
applause.]" 

VOTE  IN   THE   HOUSE. 

The  original  bill  suspending  the  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers  for  a  period, 
of  20  years  passed  the  House  March  23  by  the  following  vote. 

The  question  was  taken  ;  and  there  were — yeas  167,  nays  66  ;  as  follows  ; 


YEAS— 167. 


*  Aiken, 

*Aldrich, 

♦Armfield, 

♦Atkins, 

Bayne, 

Belford, 

*Belmont, 

♦Berry, 

Bingham, 

♦Blackburn, 

♦Blanchard, 

*Bliss, 

*Blount, 

Brewer, 

Brumm, 

♦Buckner, 

Burrows,  Jos.  H. 


♦Davis,  Lowndes  H. 
De  Motte, 
♦Deuster, 
Dezendorf, 
♦Dibble, 
♦Dibrell, 
♦Dowd, 
♦Dugro, 
♦Ermcntrout, 
Errett, 

Farwell,  Chas.  B. 
:  j'inley, 
Fowler, 
Ford, 
♦Forney, 

Fulkerson,  (Readj.) 
♦Garrison, 


♦Hutchins, 

Jones,  George  W. 

♦Jones,  James  K. 

Jorgensen, 

♦Kenna, 

♦King, 

♦Klotz, 

♦Knott. 

Ladd, 

♦Leedom, 

Lewis, 

Marsh, 

♦Martin, 

♦Matson, 

McClure, 

McCook, 

♦McKenzie, 


♦Rosccrans, 

Scranton , 

Shallenberger, 

Shervvin, 

♦Simonton, 

♦Singleton,  Otho  B. 

Smith,  A.  Heir, 

Smith,  Dietrich,  C. 

Smith,  J.  Hyatt  (Ind.> 

♦Sparks, 

Spaulding, 

♦Speer, 

♦Springer, 

♦Stockslager, 

Strait, 

♦Talbott, 

Thomas, 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 


239 


Butterworth, 

♦Geddes, 

McKinley, 

♦Thompson,  P.  B. 

♦Cabell, 

George, 

♦McLane, 

♦Tillman, 

♦Caldwell, 

♦Gibson, 

♦McMillin, 

Townsend,  Amos, 

Calkins, 

Guenther, 

Miller, 

♦Townsend,  R.  W. 

Campbell, 

♦Gunter, 

♦Mills, 

♦Tucker, 

Cannon, 

♦Hammond, 

♦Monej*, 

♦Turner,  Henry  G. 

*Cassidy, 

♦Hardy, 

Morey, 

♦Turner,  Oscar, 

Caswell, 

Harmer, 

♦Moult  on, 

Updegraph,  J.  T. 

*Chalmers, 

♦Harris,  Henry  S. 

Murch, 

♦Upson, 
Valentine, 

♦Chapman, 

Hazeltine, 

♦Mutchler, 

*Clark, 

♦Hatch, 

O'Neill, 

♦Vance, 

♦Clements, 

Hazleton, 

Pacheco, 

Van  Horn, 

♦Cobb, 

Heilman, 

Page, 

♦Warner, 

♦Converse, 

♦Herndon, 

Paul,  (Readj.) 

Washburn, 

♦Cook, 

♦Hewitt,  Abram'S. 

Pay son. 

Webber, 

Cornell, 

Hill, 

Peelle, ' 

♦Wellborn, 

♦Cox,  Samuel  S. 

Hiscock, 

♦Phelps, 

♦Whitthorne, 

♦Cox,  William  R 

♦Hoblitzell, 

♦Phister, 

♦Williams,  Thomas, 

♦Covington, 

♦Hoge, 
♦Holman, 

Pound, 

♦Willis, 

♦Cravens, 

♦Randall, 

Willits, 

♦Culbertson, 

Horr, 

♦Reagan, 

♦Wilson, 

♦Curtin, 

Houk, 

Rice,  Theron  M. 

♦Wise,  George  D. 

Darrell, 

♦House, 

♦Richardson,  Jno.  S. 

♦Wise,  Morgan  IX 

♦Davidson, 

Hubbell, 

♦Robertson, 

Wood,  Walter  A. 

Davis,  George  R. 

Hubbs, 

♦Robinson,  Win,  E. 
NAYS— 66. 

Anderson, 

Farwell,  Sewell  S. 

Lord, 

Skinner, 

Barr, 

Grout, 

McCoid, 

Spooner, 

♦Bragg, 

Hall, 

♦Morse, 

Stone, 

Briggs, 

Hammond,  John, 

Norcross, 

Taylor, 

Browne, 

♦Hardenbergh, 

Orth, 

Thompson,  Wm.  G. 

Buck, 

Harris,  Benj.  W. 

Parker, 

Tyler, 

Camp, 

Haskell, 

Ranney, 

Updegraff,  Thomas, 

Chandler, 

Hawk, 

Reed, 

Urner, 

Carpenter, 

Henderson, 

Rice,  John  B. 

Wadsworth, 

Chace, 

Hepburn, 

Rice,  William  W. 

Wait, 

Crapo, 

♦Hooker, 

Rich, 

Walker, 

Cullen, 

Humphrey, 

Richardson,  D.  P. 

Ward, 

Dawes, 

Jacobs, 

Ritchie, 

Watson, 

Deering, 

Jones,  Phineas, 

Robinson,  Geo.  D. 

White, 

Dingley, 

Joyce, 

Russell, 

Williams,  Chas.  G. 

Dunnell, 

Kasson, 

Ryan, 

Dwight, 

Ketcham, 

Shultz, 

The  second  bill,  prepared  after  the  President's  veto,  suspended  the  coming  of 
Chinese  laborers  for  10  years.  It  passed  the  House  April  17  by  the  following 
vote  * 

YEAS— 261. 


♦Aiken, 

Aldrich, 

Anderson, 

♦Armfield, 

♦Atkins, 

Bayne, 

♦Beach, 

Belford. 

♦Berry, 

Bingham, 

♦Blackburn, 

♦Blanchard, 

♦Bland, 

♦Blount, 

♦Buchanan, 

♦Buckner, 

Burrows,  Julius  C. 

Burrows,  Jos.  H. 

Butterworth, 

♦Cabell, 

♦Caldwell, 

Calkins, 

Camp, 

Campbell, 

Cannon, 
♦Carlisle, 
♦Cassidy, 

Caswell, 

Chace, 
♦Chalmers, 
♦Chapman, 
♦Clardy, 


♦Dibble, 

♦Dibrell, 

♦Dowd, 

Dunnell, 

♦Ermentrout, 

Errett, 

♦Evins, 

Farwell,  Chas.  B. 

♦Finley, 

Fisher, 

♦Flower, 

Ford, 

♦Forney, 

Fulkerson,  (Readj.) 

♦Geddes, 

George, 

♦Gibson, 

Guenther, 

♦Gunter, 

♦Hammond,  N.  J. 

♦Hardy, 

Harmer, 
♦Harris,  Henry  S. 

Haseltine, 

Haskell, 
♦Hatch, 

Hawk, 

Hazelton, 

Heilman, 
♦Herbert, 
♦Herndon. 
♦Hewitt,  Abram  S. 


♦Kenna, 

Ketcham, 

♦Klotz, 

♦Knott, 

Lacey, 

Ladd, 

♦Latham, 

♦Leedom, 

♦Le  Fevre, 

Lewis, 

Lord, 

♦Manning, 

Marsh, 

Mason, 

♦Matson, 

McClure, 

McCook, 

♦McKenzie, 

McKinley, 

♦McLane, 

Miles, 

Miller, 
♦Money, 

Morey, 
♦Morrison, 

MOSGROVE, 

♦Moulton, 
♦Muldrow, 

Murch, 

Neal, 
♦Nolan, 

Oates, 


♦Robinson,  Wm.  E. 
♦Rosecrans, 
♦Ross, 
Russell, 
Ryan, 
Scranton, 
♦Shackelford, 
Shallenberger, 
♦Shelley, 
Sherwin, 
♦Simon  ton, 
♦Singleton,  Otho  R. 
Smith,  A.  Hen- 
Smith,  Dietrich  C. 
Smith,  J.  Hyatt  (Ind.). 
♦Sparks. 
Spaulding, 
♦Speer, 
Spooner, 
♦Springer, 

Steele, 

Strait, 
♦Talbott, 
♦Tilman, 

Townsend,  Amos 
♦Townshend.  R.  W^ 
♦Turner,  Henry  G. 
♦Turner,  Oscar 

Tyler, 

Updegraff,  J.  T. 
♦Upson, 

Urner, 


240 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 


^Clark, 

♦Hewitt,  G. 

W. 

O'Neill, 

Valentine, 

"Clements, 

Hill, 

Pacheco, 

♦Vance, 

"Cobb, 

Hiscock, 

Page, 

Van  Horn, 

kColerick, 

♦Hoblitzell, 

Paul,  (Readj.) 

Wait, 

''Converse, 

♦Hoge. 

Payson, 

♦Warner, 

"Cook, 

♦Holman, 

Peelle, 

Webber, 

"Cox,  Samuel  S. 

Horr, 

Peirce, 

♦Wellborn, 

"Covington, 

Houk, 

♦Phelps, 

West, 

"Cravens, 

♦House, 

Pound, 

♦Wheeler, 

"Culberson, 

Hubbs, 

Prescott, 

White, 

Cullen, 

♦Hutchins, 

♦Randall, 

♦Whitthorne, 

"Curtin, 

Jacobs, 

♦Reagan, 

♦Williams,  Thomas 

Darrell, 

Jadwin 

Reed, 

♦Willis, 

"Davidson, 

Jones,  George  TV 

Rice,  Theron  M. 

Willits, 

Davis,  George  R. 

♦Jones,  James  K. 

Rich, 

♦Wise,  George  D. 

"Davis,  Lowndes  H. 

Jones,  Phineas 

♦Robertson 

♦Wise,  Morgan  R. 

De  Motte, 

Jorgensen, 

Robeson, 

"Deuster, 

Kasson, 

Robinson, 

Geo.  D. 

Dezendorf, 

Kelly 

Robinson, 
NAYS— 37. 

James  S. 

Bowman, 

Farwell,  Sewell  S. 

Norcross, 

Stone, 

"Bragg, 

Grout, 

Orth, 

Thompson,  Wm.  G. 

Brings, 

Hall, 

Parker, 

Van  Aernam. 

Buck, 

Hammond, 

John 

Ranney, 

A1" an  Voorhis, 

Carpenter, 

♦Hardenbergh, 

Ray, 

Wadsworth, 

Crapo, 

Humphrey, 

Rice,  John  B. 

Ward, 

Dawes, 

Jovce, 

Rice,  William  W. 

Williams,  Chae.  G. 

Deering, 

McCoid, 

Ritchie, 

Dinglev, 

Moore, 

Shultz, 

Dwight, 

♦Morse, 

Skinner, 

The  first  bill,  suspending  Chinese  immigration  for   twenty  years,  passed  the 
Senate  March  9th,  as  follows: 


YEAS— 29. 

•"Bayard, 
"Beck, 
"Call, 

Cameron  of  Wis., 
"Cockrell, 
"Coke, 
"Fair, 
"Farley, 

♦Garland, 

♦George, 

♦Gorman, 

Hale, 
♦Harris, 

Hill  of  Colorado, 
♦Jackson, 
♦Jonas, 

Jones  of  Nevada, 
Miller  of  Cal., 
Miller  of  N.  Y., 

♦Morgan, 

♦Pugh, 

♦Ransom, 
Sawyer, 

♦Slater, 

NEAS— 15. 

Teller, 
♦Vance, 
♦Vest, 
♦Voorhees, 
♦Walker. 

Aldrich, 
Allison, 
Blair, 
"Brown, 

r  Conger. 

♦Davis  of  Illinois, 

Dawes, 

Edmunds, 

Frye, 
Hoar, 
Ingalls, 
Lapham, 

McDill, 

McMillan, 
Morrill. 

The  second  bill,  suspending  it  for  ten  years,  passed  the  Senate  April  28th,  aa 


follows: 


YEAS— 32. 


"Beck, 

♦Farley, 

♦Johnston, 

♦Pugh, 

♦Butler, 

♦Garland, 

♦Jonas, 

Saunders, 

♦Call, 

♦George, 

Jones  of  Nevada, 

♦Slater, 

Cameron  of  Wis., 

♦Grover, 

♦Maxey, 

♦Vance, 

Chilcott, 

Hale, 

Miller  of  Cal., 

Van  Wyck, 

"Coke, 

♦Hampton, 

Miller  of  N.  Y  ■ 

♦Vest, 

"Davis  of  Illinois, 

♦Harris, 

♦Morgan, 

♦Walker, 

"Fair, 

Hill  of  Colorado, 

♦Pendleton , 
NAYS— 15. 

♦Williams. 

Allison, 

Edmunds, 

Hoar, 

Morrill, 

Blair, 

Frye, 

Ingalls, 

Piatt, 

Conger, 

Harrison, 

Lapham, 

Sherman. 

Dawes, 

McMillan. 

McMillan, 

During  the  present  Congress,  on  the  3d  of  May,  1884,  the  House  having  undei 
consideration  a  bill  to  amend  the  law  of  March  6th,  1882,  Mr.  Lamb  (Dem^Tat), 
of  Indiana,  said: 

There  is  a  record,  Mr.  Chairman,  upon  this  question,  not  only  of  individuals,  but  a  record  of 
parties  as  well.  Much  has  been  said  about  the  Democratic  party  being  a  party  of  free  trade,  as 
was  said  so  forcibly  by  my  colleague  from  Indiana  a  while  ago.  I  am  proud  to  say  that  no  single 
Democrat  upon  this  floor  has  lifted  his  voice  to-day  in  behalf  of  the  pauper  labor  of  China  and 


PROTECTION   OF   LABOR. 


241 


against  the  interests  of  the  free  labor  of  America.  I  am  glad  that  the  opposition  comes  from  that 
side  of  the  House  which  pretends  always  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  American  laborer.  And 
may  I  not  be  pardoned  for  asking  the  gentlemen  who  for  the  past  two  weeks  have  with  loud  voices 
and  unmeasured  tones  denounced  my  side  of  the  Chamber  because  of  their  wishing,  as  they  allege, 
to  break  down  American  labor  to  the  depths  of  degradation  of  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe— I  say 
may  I  not  be  pardoned  if  I  ask  them  whether  they  are  in  earnest,  or  whether  it  is  not  their  en- 
deavor to  protect  capital  alone  ?******  When  this  legislation  was  before  Congress 
two  years  ago — and  I  have  the  record  here  before  me — sixty-six  Republicans,  sixty-six  members  of 
the  other  side  of  the  House  who  stand  here  pretending  to  protect  American  labor,  voted  against 
that  bill.  When  the  bill  to  limit  immigration  for  ten  years  was  before  the  nouse,  thirty-seven 
members  of  the  House  voted  against  that  bill,  and  of  that  number  thirty-four  were  Republicans, 
and  but  three  Democrats.  Upon  this  proposition,  then,  as  to  whether  my  party  is  in  favor  of  free 
trade,  in  favor  of  placing  the  labor  of  America  upon  a  level  with  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe,  I  am 
willing  to  be  judged  by  the  record. 


The  vote  on  this  bill  was  as  follows: 


YEAS— 184. 

Aiken, 

Boyle, 

Caldwell, 

Alexander. 

Brainerd, 

Campbell,  J.  M. 

Atkinson, 

Breckinridge, 

Candler, 

Eagley, 

Brown,  W.  W. 

Carleton, 

Barksdale, 

Brumm, 

C  as  sidy, 

Bayne, 

Buchunan, 

Clardy, 

Beach, 

Buckner, 

Clay, 

Rlanchard, 

Budd, 

Clements, 

Bland, 

Burnes, 

Cobb, 

Cutcheon, 

Henly, 

Money, 

Dargan, 

Hepburn, 

Morgan, 

Davis,  G.  B. 

Herbert, 

Morrison, 

Deuster, 

Hewitt,  G.  W. 

Murphy, 

Dibble, 

Hill, 

Murray, 

Dibrell, 

Hiscock, 

Neece, 

Dockery, 

Holman, 

Nutting, 

Dowd. 

Holmes, 

Oates, 

Dunham, 

Hopkins, 

O'Neill,  J.  J. 

Dunn, 

Horr, 

Paige, 

Eaton, 

Honk, 

Patton, 

Elliott, 

Houseman, 

Pierce, 

Ellwood, 

Hurd, 

Peel,  S.  W. 

Ermentrout, 

Jeffords, 

Peele.  S.  J. 

Evins.  J.  H. 

Jones,  B.  W. 

Pettibone, 

Eerrell, 

Jones,  J.  H. 

Post, 

Eiedler, 

King, 

Pryor, 

Finerty, 

Lacey, 

Pusey, 

Follett, 

Lamb, 

Randall, 

Eoran, 

Lanham, 

Rankin, 

Forney, 

Lawrence, 

Reese, 

Evan, 

LeFevre, 

Robertson, 

Garrison, 

Lewi  8, 

Bobinson,  J.  S. 

George, 

Lovering, 

Rogers,  J.  H. 

Gibson, 

Lowry, 

Rogers,  W.  F. 

Glascock, 

McAdoo, 

Rosecrans, 

Ooff, 

Mc  Cold, 

Howell, 

Graves, 

Mc  Comas, 

Scales, 

Green, 

Mc  Cormick, 

Seney, 

Grt-enleaf, 

Mc  Kin  ley, 

Seymour, 

Goenther, 

McMillin, 

Shaw, 

Halsell, 

Matson, 

Shelley, 

Mammond, 

Maybory, 

Singleton, 

Hancock, 

Miller,  J.  F. 

Skinner,  T.  G. 

Hardeman, 

Miller.  S.  H. 

Slocum, 

Hatch,  W.  H. 

MUlikin, 

Smith, 

Henderson,  D.B. 

Mitchell, 

Springer, 
NAYS— 13. 

Adams,  G.  E. 

Henderson,  T.  J. 

Price, 

Brewer,  F.  B. 

Hilt, 

Bice, 

Browne,  T.  M. 

Kean, 

Skinner,  C.  B. 

Everhart, 

Lyman. 

Smalls, 

Collins, 

Connolly, 

Converse, 

Cook, 

Cosgrove, 

Cox,  S.  S. 

Crisp, 

Culberson,  D.  B. . 

Cullen, 

Steele, 

Stephemon, 

Stewart,  Charles 

Stock  slager, 

Strait 

Stmble, 

Sumner,  C.  A. 

Sumner,  D.  H. 

Taylor,  J.  M. 

Throckmorton, 

Tillman, 

Tully, 

Turner,  H.  J. 

Turner,  Oscar 

Van  Alstyne, 

Vance, 

Van  Eaton, 

Wakefield, 

Ward, 

Warner,  Richard 

Weaver, 

Wellborn, 

Weller, 

Wemple, 

White,  Milo 

Whiting, 

Wilkins, 

Williams, 

Willis, 

Wilson,  James 

Wilson.  W.  L. 

Winans,  E.  B. 

WTinans,  John 

Wise,  G.  D. 

Wolford, 

Worthington, 

Yaple. 


Spooner. 


The  bill  was  ordered  by  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  House,  by  a 
party  vote,  to  be  reported  favorably,  and  the  Record  shows  that  every  voice  raised 
against  the  bill  and  every  vote  cast  against  it  was  Republican.  Its  fate  in  the 
Senate  was  exceedingly  dubious  until  the  necessities  of  the  campaign  rendered 
its  passage  absolutely  essential. 


16 


242  PROTECTION   OF   PERSONAL   LIBERTY. 


Protection  of  Personal  Liberty. 


Republican  Tendencies. 

A  political  party  whose  tendencies  are  toward  centralization  and  imperialism  in 
affairs  of  state  and  officiousness  in  the  private  business  affairs  of  the  people, 
naturally  seeks  to  regulate  their  morals  by  sumptuary  legislation  instead  of  leaving 
them  where  they  properly  belong,  to  social  and  religious  influences.  They  seem 
to  forget  that  church  and  state  have  been  permanently  divorced,  for  their  obnoxious 
legislation  is  based  upon  the  ancient  theory  of  government.  They  not  only  attempt, 
through  State  laws,  to  regulate  the  appetites  and  tastes  of  the  people,  but  even 
invoke  the  strong  arm  of  the  federal  government  for  similar  purposes. 

In  illustration  of  this  tendency  we  refer  to  a  few  recent  attempts. 

In  January,  1876,  a  bill  to  provide  a  commission  on  the  subject  of  alcoholic 
liquor  traffic  was  passed  in  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of — yeas,  37  Republicans  and  1 
Democrat ;  nays,  20  Democrats.     Mr.  Logan  voted  aye. 

In  January,  1878,  Mr.  Blair  (Republican)  offered  a  constitutional  amendment 
forbidding  the  manufacture,  sale  or  importation  of  alcoholic  liquors  in  the  United 
States. 

In  March,  1879,  a  bill  to  appoint  a  commission  of  five  persons  to  investigate  the 
alcoholic  liquor-traffic,  principally  in  its  relations  to  revenue,  and  also  as  to  taxa- 
tion and  its  general  economic  and  scientific  aspects  in  connection  with  the  public 
health  and  general  welfare  of  the  people,  was  passed  in  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of — 
ayes,  28  Republicans  and  1  Democrat  ;  noes,  19  Democrats. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1882,  Mr.  Joyce  (Republican)  moved  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  that  the  rules  be  suspended,  and  the  following  bill  be  taken  up  out 
of  order  and  passed  : 

Mr.  Joyce's  Bill. 

Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  That  there  shall  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  a  commission  of  five  persons,  not  all  of  whom  shall  be 
advocates  of  prohibitory  liquor  laws,  and  neither  of  whom  shall  be  the  holder  of  any 
office  of  profit  or  trust  in  the  General  Government  or  any  State  government.  The  said 
commissioners  shall  be  selected  solely  with  reference  to  personal  fitness  and  capacity  for 
an  honest,  impartial,  and  thorough  investigation,  and  shall  hold  office  until  their  duties 
shall  be  accomplished,  but  not  to  exceed  two  years.  It  shall  be  their  duty  to  investigate 
the  alcoholic,  fermented,  and  vinous  liquor  traffic  and  manufacture  with  reference  to 
revenue  and  taxation,  and  the  effect  of  each  class  of  such  liquors  in  their  economic, 
criminal,  moral,  and  scientific  aspects  in  connection  with  pauperism,  crime,  social  vice, 
the  public  health,  and  general  welfare  of  the  people  ;  and  also  to  inquire  into  the  prac- 
tical results  of  taxation  and  license,  and  of  restrictive  legislation  for  the  prevention  of 
intemperance  in  the  several  States,  Territories,  and  District  of  Columbia. 


PROTECTION   OF   PERSONAL    LIBERTY. 


243 


Sec.  2.  That  the  said  commissioners  shall  further  ascertain,  as  near  as  may  be,  the 
number  of  gallons  of  wine,  beer,  or  distilled  liquors  annually  consumed  in  different 
countries,  more  especially  within  the  United  States  ;  the  number  of  deaths  annually 
from  alcoholism,  the  number  and  character  of  crimes  resulting  from  the  use  of  alcoholic 
and  malt  liquors  ;  and  the  diseases  produced  by  the  use  thereof,  mental  as  well  as 
physical  ;  the  number  of  arrests  for  drunkenness  ;  the  amount  of  pauperism  produced 
by  the  use  of  such  liquors  ;  the  amount  of  revenue  received  by  the  Government  from 
the  liquor  traffic  and  liquor  making  ;  the  amount  of  tax  or  revenue  received  from  such 
manufacturing  and  traffic  by  State  and  municipal  governments  ;  the  amount  of  food 
transformed  into  alcohol  ;  the  probable  retail  cost  of  alcoholic  and  malt  liquors  con- 
sumed ;  the  cost  of  caring  for  the  insane,  idiotic,  criminals,  and  paupers  made  such  by 
the  use  of  alcoholic  and  malt  liquors  ;  the  capital  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  such 
liquors  and  in  the  traffic  thereof ;  the  quantity  of  such  liquors  imported  and  exported  ; 
the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  such  liquors. 

Sec.  3.  That  the  said  commissioners  shall  serve  without  salary,  but  are  hereby 
authorized  to  employ  a  secretary  at  a  reasonable  compensation,  not  to  exceed  $2,500  per 
annum,  which,  with  the  necessary  expenses,  incidental  to  such  investigation,  of  the  secre- 
tary and  commissioners,  shall  be  paid,  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise 
appropriated,  upon  vouchers  signed  by  the  president  and  countersigned  by  the  secretary, 
and  approved  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  and  the  sum  of  $10,000,  or  as  much 
thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  is  hereby  appropriated  to  pay  such  vouchers. 

Sec.  4.  That  said  commissioners  shall,  as  soon  after  their  appointment  as  is  con- 
venient, meet  and  organize  by  the  election  of  one  of  their  number  as  president  of  such 
board,  and  they  shall  also  elect  a  secretary,  as  hereinbefore  provided,  who  shall  take  the 
usual  oath  of  office,  arid  give  a  bond  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States  in  the  penal  sum  of  $3,000  for  the  faithful  performance  of  the  duties  of  his 
office,  which  bond  and  the  sureties  thereon  shall  be  approved  by  such  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury. 

Sec.  5.  That  it  shall  be  the  further  duty  of  said  commissioners  to  report  the  result 
of  their  investigations  and  the  expenses  attending  the  same  to  the  President,  to  be  by  him 
transmitted  to  Congress. 

The  question  was  taken  and  there  were — yeas  112,  and  nays  98,  as  follows  : 


yeas— 112. 


Bayne, 

Belford, 

*Beltzhoover, 

Bowman, 

Briggs, 

Browne, 

Buck, 

Burrows,  Julius  C. 

Camp, 

Candler, 

Cannon, 

Carpenter, 

Caswell, 

Chace, 

Crapo, 

*Culberson, 

Cullen, 

Dawes, 

Deering, 

De  Motte, 

Dingley, 

Dunnell, 

Farwell,  Sewell  S. 

Fisher, 

Ford, 

George, 

Godshalk, 

Grout, 


Hammond,  John, 

Haseltine, 

Haskell, 

Hawk, 

Hazel  ton, 

Heilman, 

Henderson, 

Hepburn, 

Hiscock, 

Horr, 

Houk, 

Hubbell, 

Hubbs, 

Humphrey, 

Jacobs, 

Jadwin, 

*Jones,  James  K. 

Jones,  Phineas, 

Jorgenson, 

Joyce, 

Kelley, 

Lacey, 

Ladd, 

Lindsey, 

Lord, 

Marsh, 

McClure, 

McKinley, 


Miller, 

Moore, 

Neal, 

O'Neil, 

Orth, 

Pacheco, 

Page, 

Parker, 

Payson, 

Peele, 

Pierce, 

Pettibone, 

Pound, 

Ranney, 

Ray, 

Reed, 

Rice,  William  W. 

Rich, 

Richardson,  D.  P. 

Ritchie, 

Robeson, 

Robinson,  James  S. 

Russell, 

Ryan, 

Scranton, 

Shallenberger, 

Sherwin, 

Shultz, 


*Simonton, 

Skinner, 

Smith,  A.  Herr, 

Smith,  Dietrich  C. 

Smith,  J.  Hyatt,  Ind. 

Spaulding, 

Spooner, 

Steele, 

Strait, 

Taylor, 

Thompson,  Wm.  G. 

Tyler, 

Updegraff,  J.  T. 

Urner, 

Valentine, 

*Vance, 

Van  Aernam, 

Van  Voorhis, 

Wadsworth, 

Wait, 

Ward, 

Washburn, 

Watson, 

Webber, 

West, 

Williams,  Chas.  G. 

Willits, 

Wood,  Walter  A. 


244 


PROTECTION  OF  PERSONAL  LIBERTY. 


•Aiken, 

*Armtield, 

•Atherton, 

•Atkins, 

*Barbour, 

*  Belmont, 

•Berry, 

•Black, 

*Blackburn, 

*Blanchard, 

*Bland, 

*Blount, 

•Bragg, 

*Buchanan, 

*Buckner, 

•Caldwell, 

*Carlisle, 

*Cassidy, 

♦Chapman, 

*Clardy, 

•Clark, 

•Clements, 

•Cobb, 

•Colerick, 

•Converse, 


NAYS- 

*Cook, 
•Cravens, 
Davis,  George  R. 

*  Davis,  Lowndes  H. 
•Duester, 
*Dibble, 
•Dibrell, 
*Dowd, 
*Ermen  trout, 
*Evins, 
•Finley, 
•Forney, 

Fulkerson,  (Readj.) 
•Geddes, 

*  Gibson, 
•Guenther, 
•Hammond,  N.J. 
*Hardenberg, 
•Hatch, 

*  Herbert, 
*Herndon, 
*Hewitt,  Abram  S. 
•Hewitt,  G.  W. 
*Hoblitzell, 
*Hoge, 


*Holman, 

•House, 

Jones  George  W. 

*Kenna, 

*Klotz, 

•Knott, 

•Latham, 

*Le  Fevre, 

•Manning, 

•Martin, 

•Matson, 

•McKenzie, 

•McLane, 

•McMillin, 

•Mills, 

•Money, 

•Morrison, 

•Muldrow, 

•Oates, 

•Phelps, 

•Phister, 

•Reagan, 

•Richardson,  Jno.  S. 

•Robinson,  Win.  E. 

•Rosecrans, 


•Scales, 

•Shelley, 

•Singleton,  Jas.  W. 

•Singleton,  Otho  R. 

•Sparks, 

•Speer, 

•Springer, 

•Stockslager, 

•Thompson,  P.  B. 

•Tillman, 

•Tucker, 

•Turner,  Henry  G. 

•Turner,  Oscar, 

•Upson, 

•Warner, 

•Wellborn, 

•Wheeler, 

•Whitthorne, 

•Williams;  Thomas, 

•Willis, 

•Wilson, 

•Wise,  George  D. 

Young. 


Of  which  105  Republicans  voted  in  the  affirmative,  and  94  Democrats  in  the 
negative. 

The  Iowa  Liquor  Law. 

The  tendency  of  sumptuary  legislation  is  toward  offlciousness  and  tyranny,  as 
may  be  seen  from  a  perusal  of  the  new  liquor  law  of  Iowa  : 

A  bill  for  an  act  to  amend  chapter  6,  title  II  of  the  Code,  relating  to  intoxicating  liquors, 
and  to  provide  additional  penalties  for  violations  of  the  provisions  of  said  chapter,  and 
the  amendments  thereto. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Iowa  : 

Section  i.  That  section  1525  of  the  Code  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed,  and 
the  following  enacted  in  lieu  thereof: 

Sec  1525.  Every  person  who  shall  manufacture  any  intoxicating  liquors,  as  in  this 
chapter  prohibited,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  his  first  convic- 
tion for  said  offense,  shall  pay  a  fine  of  two  hundred  dollars  and  costs  of  prosecution  or 
be  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  not  to  exceed  six  months  ;  and  on  his  second,  and  every 
subsequent  conviction  for  said  offense,  he  shall  pay  a  fine  of  not  less  than  five  hundred 
dollars  nor  more  than  one  thousand  dollars  and  costs  of  prosecution,  and  be  imprisoned 
in  the  county  jail  one  year. 

Sec  2.  That  section  1526  of  the  Code  of  1873  be,  and  is  hereby  re-enacted  and 
amended  by  inserting  the  word  "to,"  and  before  the  words  "buy  and  sell  intoxicating 
liquors,"  the  words  "manufacture  or." 

Sec  3.  That  section  1527  of  the  Code  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  amended  by 
inserting  after  the  words  "desires  to,"  and  before  the  words  "sell  said  liquors,"  in  the 
third  line  of  said  section  the  words  ' '  manufacture  or. ' ' 

Sec  4.  That  section  1528  of  the  Code  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  amended  by 
adding  thereto  the  words  :  provided,  that  in  case  of  a  permit  to  manufacture  intoxicating 
liquors,  the  penalty  of  the  bond  shall  be  five  thousand  dollars. 

Sec  5.  That  section  153 1  of  the  Code  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  amended,  by  insert- 
ing in  the  second  line  thereof,  after  the  words  "may  be,"  the  words  "manufactured 
or." 

Sec  6.  That  section  1535  of  the  Code  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  amended,  by  insert- 
ing after  the  words  "record  of,"  in  the  fourth  line,  the  words  "  manufacture  or." 

Sec  7.  That  section  1537  of  the  Code  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  amended  by  add- 
ing thereto  the  words  "  and  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall  apply  to  persons  holding 
a  permit  to  manufacture   intoxicating  liquors,  so  far  as  the    same  relates  to   the  report  ; 


PROTECTION   OF   PERSONAL   LIBERTY.  245 

and  any  such  manufacture  shall,  within  the  time  specified  for  parties  holding  a  permit  to 
sell,  also  report  the  quantity  and  kind  of  liquors  by  him  manufactured  since  the  date  of 
his  last  report,  and  also  the  quantity  and  kinds  of  liquors  sold  by  him,  and  for  what  pur- 
pose, and  to  whom  sold." 

Sec.  8.  That  section  1558  of  the  Code  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed,  and  the 
following  enacted  in  lieu  thereof  : 

Sec.  1538.  Any  person  having  such  permit  who  shall  sell  intoxicating  liquors  at  a 
greater  profit  than  is  herein  allowed,  shall  be  liable  to  treble  damages,  to  be  recovered  by 
civil  action  in  favor  of  the  party  injured  ;  and  any  person  holding  a  permit,  either  to 
manufacture  or  sell,  who  shall  fail  to  make  monthly  returns  as  herein  required,  or  within 
fifteen  days  thereafter,  or  who  shall  make  a  false  return  shall  forfeit  for  each  offense  the 
sum  of  $100,  to  be  recovered  in  the  name  of  the  State  of  Iowa,  upon  the  relation  of  any 
citizen  of  the  county  by  civil  action  on  his  bond  with  costs,  and  one-half  of  the  sum 
recovered  shall  go  to  the  informer,  and  one-half  shall  go  to  the  shool  fund  of  the  county. 

Sec.  9.  That  section  1539  of  the  Code  be,  and  is  hereby  amended  by  adding  thereto 
the  following,  to  wit  :  One-half  of  the  amount  so  recovered  shall  go  to  the  informer,  and 
the  other  half  shall  go  to  the  school  fund  of  the  county. 

Sec  10.  That  section  1540  of  the  Code  be  repealed,  and  the  following  enacted  in  lieu 
thereof : 

"Sec.  1540.  If  any  person  not  holding  such  a  permit,  by  himself,  his  clerk,  servant, 
or  agent,  shall  for  himself,  or  any  person  else,  directly  or  indirectly,  or  on  any  pretense, 
or  by  any  device,  sell,  or  in  consideration  of  the  purchase  of  any  other  property,  give  to 
any  person  any  intoxicating  liquors,  he  shall,  for  the  first  offense,  be  deemed  guilty  of  a 
misdemeanor,  and  on  conviction  for  said  first  offense  shall  pay  a  fine  of  not  less  than  $50 
or  more  than  $100  and  costs  of  prosecution,  and  stand  committed  to  the  county  jail  until 
such  fine  and  costs  are  paid;  for  the  second  and  every  subsequent  offense  he  shall  pay,  on 
conviction  thereof,  a  fine  of  not  less  than  $300  nor  more  than  $500,  and  costs  of  prosecution, 
and  be  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  not  to  exceed  six  months.  All  clerks,  servants  and 
agents  of  whatever  kind,  engaged  or  employed  in  the  manufacture,  sale,  or  keeping  for 
sale  in  violation  of  this  chapter,  of  any  intoxicating  liquor,  shall  be  charged  and  con- 
victed in  the  same  manner  as  principals  may  be,  and  shall  be  subject  to  the  penalties 
herein  provided.  Indictments  and  informations  for  violations  under  this  section  may 
allege  any  number  of  violations  of  its  provisions  by  the  same  party,  but  the  various  alle- 
gations must  be  contained  in  separate  counts,  and  the  person  so  charged  may  be  convicted 
and  punished  for  each  of  the  violations  so  alleged  as  on  separate  indictments  or  informa- 
tions, but  a  separate  judgment  must  be  entered  on  each  count  on  which  a  verdict  of 
guilty  is  rendered.  The  second  and  subsequent  convictions  mentioned  in  this  section 
shall  be  construed  to  mean  convictions  on  separate  indictments  or  informations.  And  in 
default  of  the  payment  of  the  fines  and  costs  provided  for  the  first  conviction  under  this 
section,  the  person  so  convicted  shall  not  be  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  chapter  47,  title  25 
of  this  Code,  until  he  shall  have  been  imprisoned  60  days." 

Sec.  11.  That  section  1542  of  the  Code  be  repealed  and  the  following  enacted  in  lieu 
thereof : 

Sec.  1542.  No  person  shall  own,  or  keep,  or  be  in  any  way  concerned,  engaged  or 
employed  in  owning  or  keeping  any  intoxicating  liquors  with  intent  to  sell  the  same 
within  this  State,  or  to  permit  the  same  to  be  sold  therein  in  violation  of  the  provisions 
hereof,  and  any  person  who  shall  so  own  or  keep,  or  be  concerned,  engaged,  or  employed 
in  owning  or  keeping  such  liquors  with  any  such  intent,  shall  be  deemed,  for  the  first 
offense,  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  ;  and  on  conviction  for  said  first  offense  shall  pay  a  fine 
of  not  less  than  fifty  nor  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  and  costs  of  prosecution,  and 
shall  stand  committed  to  the  county  jail  until  such  fine  and  costs  are  paid,  and  in  default 
of  such  fine  and  costs,  he  shall  not  be  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  chapter  forty-seven,  title 
twenty-five  of  the  code,  until  he  shall  have  been  imprisoned  sixty  days  ;  for  the  second 
and  every  subsequent  offense  he  shall  pay  a  fine  of  not  less  than  three  hundred  dollars 
nor  more  than  five  hundred,  or  be  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  not  more  than  six 
months,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment  in  the  discretion  of  the  court.  And  upon 
trial  of  every  indictment  or  information  of  violations  of  the  provisions  of  this  section,  proof 
of  the  finding  of  the  liquor  named  in  the  indictment  or  in  the  information,  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  accused  in  any  place  except  his  private  dwelling-house,  or  its  dependencies, 
or  in  such  dwelling-house  or  dependencies,  if  the  same  is  a  tavern,  public  eating  house, 
grocery,  or  other  place  of  public  resort,  or  in  unusual  quantities  in  the  private  dwelling- 
house  or  its  dependencies  of  any  person  keeping  a  tavern,  public  eating  house,  grocery, 
or  other  place  of  public  resort  in  some  other  place,  shall  be  received  and  acted  upon 
by  the  court  as  presumptive  evidence  that  such  liquor  was  kept  or  held  for  sale  contrary 
to  the  provisions  thereof. 


246  PROTECTION    OF    PERSONAL    LIBERTY. 

Sec.  12.  That  section  1543  of  the  Code  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed  and  the 
following  enacted  in  lieu  thereof : 

"Sec.  1543.  In  cases  of  violation  of  the  provisions  of  either  of  the  three  preceding 
sections,  or  of  section  1525  of  this  chapter,  the  building  or  erection  of  whatever  kind,  or 
the  ground  itself,  in  or  upon  which  such  unlawful  manufacture,  or  sale,  or  keeping,  with 
intent  to  sell,  use  or  give  away,  of  any  intoxicating  liquor  is  carried  on,  or  continued,  or 
exists,  and  the  furniture,  fixtures,  vessels,  and  contents,  is  hereby  declared  a  nuisance  and 
shall  be  abated  as  hereinafter  provided,  and  whoever  shall  erect  or  establish,  or  continue, 
or  use  any  building,  erection,  or'place  for  any  of  the  purposes  prohibited  in  said  sections 
shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  nuisance,  and  may  be  prosecuted  and  punished  accordingly, 
and  upon  conviction  shall  pay  a  fine  of  not  exceeding  $1,000  and  costs  of  prosecution, 
and  stand  committed  until  the  fine  and  costs  are  paid  ;  and  the  provision  of  chapter  47, 
title  25  of  this  Code  shall  not  be  applicable  to  persons  committed  under  this  section.  Any 
citizen  of  the  county  where  such  nuisance  exists,  or  is  kept  or  maintained,  may  maintain 
an  action  in  equity  to  abate  and  perpetually  enjoin  the  same,  and  any  person  violating 
the  terms  of  any  injunction  granted  in  such  proceedings,  shall  be  punished  as  for  con- 
tempt by  a  fine  of  not  less  than  five  hundred  nor  more  than  one  thousand  dollars,  or  by 
imprisonment  in  the  county  jail  not  more  than  six  months,  or  by  both  such  fine  and 
imprisonment  in  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

Sec.  13.  That  section  1551  of  the  Code  be, and  the  same  is  hereby  amended  by  adding 
thereto  the  following:  "Every  peace  officer  shall  give  evidence  when  called  upon,  of 
any  facts  within  his  knowledge,  tending  to  prove  a  violation  of  the  provisions  of  this 
chapter,  but  his  evidence  in  no  case  shall  be  used  against  him  in  any  prosecution  against 
him  for  a  violation  of  the  provisions  of  this  chapter." 

Sec.  14.  That  section  1553  of  the  Code  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed  and  the 
following  enacted  in  lieu  thereof : 

Sec.  1553.  If  any  express  company,  railway  company,  or  any  agent,  or  person  in  the 
employ  of  any  express  company  or  railroad  company,  or  if  any  common  carrier,  or  any 
person  in  the  employ  of  any  common  carrier,  or  if  any  other  person  shall  knowingly 
bring  within  this  State  for  any  other  person  or  persons,  or  corporation,  or  shall  transport 
between  points  within  this  State  for  any  other  person  or  persons,  or  corporation,  any  in- 
toxicating liquors,  without  first  having  been  furnished  with  a  certificate  from  and  under 
the  seal  of  the  county  auditor  of  the  county  to  which  said  liquor  is  to  be  transported  or  is 
consigned  for  transportation,  certifying  that  such  consignee  or  person,  for  or  to  whom 
said  liquor  is  to  be  transported,  is  authorized  to  sell  such  intoxicating  liquors  in  such 
county,  such  company,  corporation,  or  persons  so  offending,  and  each  of  them,  and  any 
agent  of  such  corporation  or  company  so  offending  shall,  upon  conviction  thereof,  be 
fined  in  any  sum  not  exceeding  $100  for  each  offense  and  shall  stand  committed  to 
the  county  jail  until  such  fine  and  the  costs  of  prosecution  are  paid,  and  one  half  of  the 
fine  shall  go  to  the  informer  and  the  other  half  shall  go  to  the  school  fund  of  the  county ; 
and  provided  further,  that  the  offense  herein  defined  shall  be  held  complete,  and  shall  be 
held  to  have  been  committed  in  any  county  of  the  State  through  or  to  which  said  intoxi- 
cating liquors  are  transported,  or  in  which  the  same  are  loaded  for  transporation;  pro- 
vided further,  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  several  county  auditors  of  this  State  to  issue 
the  certificate  herein  contemplated  to  any  person  having  such  permit,  and  the  certificate 
so  issued  shall  be  truly  dated  where  issued,  and  shall  specify  the  date  at  which  the 
authority  or  permit  expires,  as  shown  by  the  county  records. 

Sec.  15.  Every  person  who  shall,  directly  or  indirectly,  keep  or  maintain  by  himself, 
or  by  associating  or  combining  with  others,  or  who  shall  in  any  manner  aid,  assist,  or 
abet,  in  keeping  or  maintaining  any  club-room,  or  other  place  in  which  intoxicating 
liquors  is  received  or  kept  for  the  purpose  of  use,  gift,  barter  or  sale,  or  for  distribution  or 
division  among  the  members  of  any  club  or  association  by  any  means  whatever,  and  every 
person  who  shall  use,  barter,  sell  or  give  away,  or  assist  or  abet  another  in  bartering, 
selling  or  giving  away  any  intoxicating  liquors  as  received  or  kept,  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  conviction  therefor  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not 
less  than  $100  nor  more  than  $500,  or  by  imprisonment  in  the  county  jail  not  less  than 
thirty  days  nor  more  than  six  months. 

Sec.  16.  All  statutes  and  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this 
chapter  as  hereby  amended,  are  hereby  repealed  ;  provided,  however,  that  this  repeal 
shall  not  affect  any  act  done,  any  right  accruing  or  which  has  accrued  or  been  established, 
nor  any  suit  or  proceeding  had  or  commenced  in  any  civil  cause  before  the  time  such 
repeal  takes  effect,  and  no  offense  committed,  nor  penalty  or  forfeiture  incurred,  and  no 
suit  or  prosecution  pending  wThen  the  repeal  takes  effect,  for  an  offense  committed  or 
for  the  recovery  of  a  penalty  or  forfeiture  incurred,  shall  be  affected  by  this  repeal  and  the 


PROTECTION   OF   PERSONAL   LIBERTY.  247 

provisions  of  section  1555  as  amended  and  substituted  by  the  act  of  this  general  assembly, 
approved  March  4,  1884,  shall  apply  and  have  relation  to  the  provisions  of  this  Code  as 
herein  amended  and  all  the  penalties  as  herein  provided,  shall  be  held  to  apply  to  intoxicat- 
ing liquors  as  defined  in  said  act  of  March  4,  1884. 

Mr.  Blaine's  Sentiments. 

Mr.  Blaine's  sentiments  on  this  question  may  be  seen  from  the  following  letter 
by  Neal  Dow  to  Rev.  C.  Clark,  editor  of  a  prohibition  newspaper  in  New  Jersey  : 

Dear  Sir  :  Your  note  of  the  4th  instant  has  just  reached  me.  In  answer  to  your 
inquiry  I  say  :  I  have  had  many  letters  from  different  parts  of  the  country  making 
inquiries  about  Mr.  Blaine.  My  reply  has  been  that  he  has  always  been  a  friend  of  the 
Maine  law  and  has  many  times  rendered  important  service  to  it.  He  is  in  favor  of  the 
proposed  constitutional  amendment  and  will  vote  for  it.  He  is  also  a  teetotaler  and  has 
been  so  several  years. 

The  Republican  party  of  Maine  has  always  made  prohibition  a  part  of  its  platform 
and  conceded  to  the  people  at  the  last  Legislature  an  opportunity  to  vote  on  the 
question  of  constitutional  prohibition,  as  it  is  the  undoubted  right  of  the  people  to  do. 
The  temperance  men  of  Maine,  therefore,  may  properly  be  loyal  to  the  party  which  has 
a  just  claim  to  their  support.  But  outside  of  this  State,  Vermont,  Kansas  and  Iowa,  the 
Republican  party  has  no  claim  whatever  upon  temperance  men  for  help  at  the  ballot  box. 

We,  the  temperance  men  of  Maine,  are  firm  in  the  conviction  that  our  object,  the 
prohibition  and  suppression  of  the  liqnor  traffic,  can  never  be  attained  except  by  inde- 
pendent political  action.  The  sooner  that  policy  is  resorted  to  and  vigorously  pursued 
the  sooner  we  shall  win.  Respectfully, 

NEAL  DOW. 

Portland,  Me.,  July  8,  1884. 

Democratic  Principles, 

The  Democratic  party  favors  the  largest  personal  liberty  compatible  with  the 
welfare  of  the  State,  and  leaves  the  regulation  of  appetites  to  moral  and  religious 
influences,  believing  those  agencies  are  the  most  effective  and  the  most  in  harmony 
with  the  principles  of  free  government. 

It  therefore  approves  and  indorses  the  action  or  those  citizens  who  recently 
organized  a  National  Protective  Association  to  protect  their  personal  liberties  from 
officious  and  undemocratic  infringement,  and  who  expressed  their  protest  in  the 
following  platform: 

We  hold  that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  based  on  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, guarantees  the  enjoyment  of  personal,  civil,  and  religious  liberty  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,  and  warrants  the  enactment  of  no  laws  which  seek  to  abridge  or  restrict 
the  same;  that  all  existing  prohibitory  laws  or  contemplated  legislation,  which  tend  to 
abridge  personal  rights,  are  tyrannical  infringements  on  constitutional  guarantees,  and 
should  be  respectively  repealed  and  opposed;  that  all  Sunday  laws  which  abridge  relig- 
ious liberty  and  prevent  the  working  classes  from  enjoying  the  public  libraries,  museums, 
art  galleries,  and  public  parks,  are  tyrannical  and  unjust,  and  should  be  repealed,  for 
Sunday  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  Sunday;  that  the  "public  school  system" 
is  the  bulwark  of  our  institutions,  and  must  be  kept  clear  and  free  from  all  sectarian  in- 
fluence and  interference;  that  all  organized  ecclesiastical  interference  in  civil  affairs  is  in 
violation  of  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  constitution,  the  genius  of  American  institutions, 
and  is  demoralizing  and  pernicious,  and  must  be  restrained ;  that  all  private  and  corporate 
property,  whether  real  or  personal,  should  bear  the  burdens  of  taxation  equally. 


248  PROTECTION   OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 


Protection  of  American  Citizens  Abroad. 

Republican  Neglect. 

During  Mr.  Blaine's  administration  of  the  State  Department  in  1881,  the  Repub- 
lican neglect  of  citizens  abroad  called  for  a  stinging  rebuke  from  Democratic 
leaders. 

Early  in  that  year  the  history  that  preceded  the  war  of  1812  began  boldly  to 
repeat  itself.  American  citizens  temporarily  resident  in  Ireland  were  thrown 
into  prison  under  the  infamous  "Coercion  Act"  of  Great  Britain.  These  men 
were  convicted  of  no  crimes  ;  they  were  simply  suspected  of  sympathy  with  the 
cause  of  Ireland.  Vain  efforts  were  made  by  individual  friends  and  by  societies 
to  have  positive  and  effective  action  taken  by  our  Government  on  behalf  of  these 
unfortunate  persons. 

The'law  upon  this  subject  is  as  follows  : 

Section  2,000,  Revised  Statutes.  All  naturalized  citizens  of  the  United  States 
while  in  foreign  countries  are  entitled  to  and  shall  receive  from  this  Government  the 
same  protection  of  persons  and  property  which  is  accorded  to.  native-born  citizens. 

Sec.  2,001.  Whenever  it  is  made  known  to  the  President  that  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States  has  been  unjustly  deprived  of  his  liberty  by  or  under  the  authority  of  any  foreign 
government,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  President  forthwith  to  demand  of  that  government 
the  reasons  of  such  imprisonment  ;  and,  if  it  appear  to  be  wrongful  and  in  violation  of 
the  rights  of  American  citizenship,  the  President  shall  forthwith  demand  the  release  of" 
such  citizen  ;  and  if  the  release  so  demanded  is  unreasonably  delayed  or  refused,  the 
President  shall  use  such  means,  not  amounting  to  acts  of  war,  as  he  may  think  necessary 
and  proper  to  obtain  or  effectuate  the  release  ;  and  all  the  facts  and  proceedings  relative 
thereto  shall,  as  soon  as  practicable,  be  communicated  by  the  President  to  Congress. 

Notwithstanding  this  sacred  obligation  the  neglect  assumed  alarming  propor- 
tions. 

The  principal  cases  were  those  of  O'Mahoney,  McSweeney,  Boynton,  O'Connor,. 
Walsh,  McEnery,  Hart,  Daly,  White,  and  McCormack. 

Case   of  O'Mahoney. 

Henry  O'Mahoney  was  imprisoned  under  the  coercion  act  June  4,  1881.  He 
presented  his  case  to  Mr.  Lowell,  U.  S.  Minister  to  London,  asking  him  to  procure 
him  a  speedy  trial  or  liberation.  To  this  request  Mr.  Lowell,  while  acknowledging 
Ms  title  to  citizenship,  regardless  of  the  plain  and  mandatory  words  of  section  2000 
R.  S. ,  above  quoted,  replied  in  effect  that  England  had  a  right  to  arrest  all  per- 
sons domiciled  in  the  proclaimed  districts,  and  that  it  was  "  manifestly  futile  to 
claim  that  naturalized  citizens  of  the  United  States  should  be  exempt  from  its. 
operation." 


PROTECTION   OF  AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD.  249 

Mr.  O'Mahoney's  wife  addressed  a  letter  to  E.  P.  Brooks,  Consul  at  Cork,  re- 
questing his  interference  to  secure  her  husband  a  speedy  trial,  and  forwarded  his 
naturalization  papers.  Mr.  Brooks,  in  a  letter  to  Adam  Badeau,  Consul-General  at 
London,  says  :  "I  explained  to  Mrs.  O'Mahoney  that  no  interference  by  me  could 
possibly  effect  the  result  she  sought." 

The  following  speaks  for  itself  : 

Mr.  Lowell  to  Mr.   O'Mahoney. 

"Legation  of  the  United  States,  ) 
"  London,  July  19,  1881.        f 

"  Sir  :  I  have  your  letter  of  the  15th  instant.  I  am  waiting  instructions  from  home 
before  taking  action  in  such  cases  as  yours. 

"It  is  my  opinion,  however,  and  in  this  I  shall  probably  be  sustained  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  State,  that  the  fact  of  being  an  American  citizen  cannot  of  itself  operate  to  exempt 
any  one  from  the  penalties  of  a  law  which  he  had  violated,  and  that  it  will  be  necessary 
to  show  that  some  exceptional  injustice  had  been  practiced  in  a?ty  particular  case  before 
the  American  Minister  can  be  called  upon  to  intervene. 

"I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"J.  R.  LOWELL." 

Mr.  O'Mahoney  had  informed  Mr.  Lowell  that  all  he  asked  was  his  interference 
to  obtain  a  speedy  trial.  Our  representative,  however,  evaded  this  direct  request  by 
assuming  that  he  asked  protection  from  the  verdict  on  the  crime  charged. 

Mr.  O'Mahoney's  citizenship  was  established  beyond  question.  He  was 
discharged  from  the  United  States  Navy  in  1865.  He  remained  in  this  country 
until  1874.  Then  sojourned  in  Ireland  until  1879.  In  February,  1880,  he  obtained 
naturalization  papers  at  Lockport,  N.  Y.  In  January,  1881,  he  returned  to 
Ireland  to  dispose  of  his  property  and  bring  his  family  to  this  country.  That  his 
citizenship  was  admitted,  and  with  it  his  right  to  the  benefit  of  section  2001,  above 
quoted,  is  shown  by  the  question  of  U.  8.  Consul  Brooks  :  ' '  Suppose  the  British 
Government  were  to  permit  your  release  from  prison  upon  condition  of  your 
immediate  return  to  the  United  States,  would  you  accept  such  terms?" 

This  question  presupposed  belief  of  his  innocence  of  the  alleged  crime  of 
attempted  murder  by  the  British  Government,  and  his  honor  and  the  honor  of  our 
country  demanded  his  trial. 

Mr.   O'Mahoney  to  Mr.  Lowell. 

"Limerick  Prison,  July  21,  1881. 

"Dear  Sir:  I  quite  agree  with  you  when  you  state  that  an  American  citizen 
should  not  be  exempt  from  the  penalties  of  a  law  which  he  violates,  and  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  show  that  some  injustice  had  been  practiced  before  your  intervention, 
and  I  respectfully  submit  the  following  facts  for  your  kind  consideration  : 

"  1st.  That  I  am  arrested  charged  with  a  crime. 

"2d.  That  I  am  detained  in  prison  without  a  shadow  of  evidence  against  me. 

"  3d.  That  I  am  debarred  of  the  right  of  proving  my  innocence  in  connection  with 
the  crime  that  I  am  suspected  of.  Therefore  all  the  favors  I  ask  (and  I  think  I  should 
claim  it  as  right)  from  the  United  States  Government,  through  you,  is  a  trial,  in  order 
that  I  may  show  that  there  is  exceptional  injustice  practiced  in  my  case.  Therefore  I 
repectfully  ask  your  intervention  to  grant  me  a  trial,  and  by  so  doing  I  will  not  only  be 
able  to  prove  myself  innocent  of  the  charge  that  I  am  accused  of,  but  of  any  other  crime 
punishable  by  law,  except  being  a  member  of  the  Land  League,  an  organization  which 
the  Prime  Minister  himself  declared  to  be  perfectly  constitutional. 

"  An  early  reply  will  oblige  yours,  respectfully, 

"HENRY  O'MAHONEY. 

"  P.  S. — Kindly  let  me  know  if  you  can  demand  an  impartial  trial  for  me  ;  if  not  I 
I  shall  ask  for  no  other  favors. 

"H.  O'M." 


250  PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

Case  of  McSweeney. 

Daniel  McSweeney,  an  American  citizen,  for  twenty  years  a  resident  of  San 
Francisco,  CaL,  was  dragged,  ill  in  health,  from  the  bosom  of  his  family  on  June 
2,  1881,  and  lodged  in  Dundalk  Jail. 

Mr.  McSweeney  to  Mr.  Lowell. 

"Dundalk  Jail,  June  7,  1881. 

"Sir:  I  am  an  American  citizen,  having  resided  twenty-five  years  in  the  United 
States,  twenty  of  which  I  spent  in  San  Francisco,  Cal.  During  that  time  I  never  was 
either  charged,  accused,  or  even  suspected  of  any  crime,  nor  in  fact  never  was  accused  of 
any  crime  in  my  life,  until  on  the  2d  of  the  present  month  my  house  was  surrounded  by 
an  armed  force  and  I  was  forcibly  dragged  from  the  bosom  of  my  family  and  lodged  in 
jail. 

' '  The  charge  against  me  now  is,  inciting  persons  to  unlawfully  assemble  and  commit 
riot  and  assault.  Now,  there  was  no  unlawful  assembly,  no  riot  or  assault  committed  in 
the  district  from  which  I  was  arrested,  neither  was  there  any  incitement  to  commit  such. 
The  government  kindly  furnished  me  with  a  shorthand  reporter  who  carefully  took  down 
every  word  I  said  in  the  English  or  Irish  language,  and  I  challenge  him,  or  the  govern- 
ment, or  all  the  landlords  in  Ireland,  to  prove  that  I  uttered  one  word  which  could  by 
any  possibility  be  construed  to  mean  incitement  to  crime.  On  the  contrary,  from  every 
platform  I  advised  the  people  to  commit  no  crime,  to  violate  no  law,  but  to  carefully  work 
within  the  lines  of  the  constitution. 

"Now,  sir,  I  want  a  fair  trial;  if  I  am  innocent,  I  want,  as  an  American,  to  be 
released ;  I  want  to  know  if  my  naturalization  papers  are  worth  preserving  ;  whether,  when 
an  American  leaves  home  his  mouth  must  be  sealed,  though  slavery  in  its  worst  form 
should  exist  in  every  country  through  which  he  may  travel. 

"Yours,  respectfully, 

"DANIEL  SWEENEY." 

Again,  in  utter  disregard  of  sections  2000  and  2001  E.  S.,  Mr.  Lowell  evades 
the  request  for  a  fair  and  speedy  trial  thus  : 

Mr.  Lowell  to  Mr.  McSweeney. 

"  Legation  of  the  United  States,  ) 
"London,  September  22,  1881.        \ 

"  Sir  :  I  have  to  acknowledge  the  reception  of  your  letter  of  the  17th  instant. 

"I  have  not  thought  it  proper  to  make  any  application  for  your  release  from  prison 
for  the  following  reasons  : 

"  The  coercion  act,  however  exceptional  and  arbitrary,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  and 
fundamental  principals  of  both  English  and  American  jurisprudence,  is  still  the  law  of 
land,  and  controls  all  parties  domiciled  in  the  proclaimed  districts  of  Ireland,  whether 
they  are  British  subjects  or  not.  It  would  be  manifestly  futile  to  claim  that  naturalized 
citizens  of  the  United  States  should  be  excepted  from  its  operatien. 

"The  only  case,  in  my  opinion,  in  which  I  ought  to  intervene,  would  be  where  an 
American  citizen  who  is  in  Ireland  attending  exclusively  to  his  private  business  and  taking 
no  part  whatever  in  public  meetings  or  political  discussions,  should  be  arrested .  Under 
such  circumstances  it  would  be  proper  to  appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  government  here 
on  the  ground  of  mistake  or  misapprehension,  and  ask  for  the  release  ot  the  prisoner. 

"  I  have  communicated  these  views  to  the  Department  of  State,  and  I  have  received, 
so  far,  no  instructions  in  a  contrary  spirit. 

"It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  the  reasons  above  given  for  intervention  exist  in  your 
case  so  far  as  I  understand  it. 

"  I  am,  sir,  etc., 

"J.  R.  LOWELL. 

The  just,  the  patriotic  indignation  of  an  American  citizen  roused  by  this 
shameless  epistle  finds  expression  in  the  following  words  of  McSweeney  : 

"Mr.  Sweeney  to  Mr.  Lowell. 

"  Dundalk  Jail,  September  27,  1881. 
"Sir:  A   letter   bearing   your  signature,  dated    from   the  Legation   of  the  United 
States,  London,  of  the  22d  instant,  is  received  by  me  in  my  prison  cell  in  Dundalk.    I 


PROTECTION   OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD.  251 

am  unwilling  to  believe  that  this  letter  is  the  production  of  an  American  gentleman, 
much  less  the  American  gentleman  representing  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James.  I  cannot  believe  that  an  American  gentleman  would  treat  the  appeal  of  an 
American  citizen  in  prison  with  contempt,  therefore  permit  me  to  presume  that  you  signed 
the  letter  in  question  by  mistake,  but  as  your  signature  is  attached  to  it  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  analyze  it,  and  if  possible,  ascertain  your  meaning. 

"The  reasons  which  you  say  influence  you  in  not  making  an  application  for  my 
release  are  not,  in  my  opinion,  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  But  I  will  quote  your  own 
words  and  leave  the  public  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  to  judge  : 

"  'The  Coercion  act,  however  exceptional  and  arbitrary,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  and 
fundamental  principles  of  English  jurisprudence,  is  the  law  of  the  land.' 

"  That  the  coercion  act  is  the  law  of  the  land  no  one  will  dispute,  but  many  will  be 
inclined  to  the  belief  that  the  absence  of  coercive  measures  would  be  exceptional. 

"  '  It  would  be  manifestly  futile  to  claim  that  naturalized  citizens  of  the  United  States 
should  be  excepted  from  its  operation.' 

"  Here  we  learn  for  the  first  time  that  there  is  a  distinction  between  naturalized  and 
native-born  American  citizens  regarding  their  right  to  claim  protection  abroad;  but  it  is 
evident  that  you  are  laboring  under  a  misapprehension  with  regard  to  my  claim.  I  did 
not  claim  to  be  excepted  from  its  operations;  my  claim  is  based  on  the  fact  that  I  did  not 
violate  any  law. 

"  '  The  only  case,  in  my  opinion,  in  which  I  ought  to  interfere  would  be  when  an 
American  citizen  who  is  in  Ireland  attending  exclusively  to  his  own  business  and  taking 
no  part  whatever  in  public  meetings  or  political  discussions  should  be  arrested,  it  would 
be  proper  to  appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  British  Government  for  the  release  of  the 
prisoner.' 

"  So  that,  in  your  opinion,  the  only  right  which  an  American  citizen  could  claim  abroad 
would  be  an  appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  Government  who  might  deprive  him  of  his 
liberty.  But  should  an  American  be  so  imprudent  as  to  take  part  in  a  public  meeting, 
say  a  prayer-meeting,  or  engage  in  any  political  discussion  with  a  Frenchman,  a  German, 
or  even  a  Zulu,  according  to  your  opinion,  he  would  forfeit  all  claim  not  only  to  protec- 
tion, but  even  to  an  appeal  to  courtesy.  This  throws  new  light  on  the  question  of 
American  citizenship. 

*  * '  '  *  *  *  *  sjc  *  *  * 

"  One  would  naturally  expect  that  a  gentleman  intrusted  with  the  important  mission 
of  United  States  Minister  at  the  English  court  should  at  least  make  a  dignified  reply  to 
what  some  gentleman  occupying  similar  position  might  consider  an  insult.  But  on  the 
contrary,  sir,  you  seem  to  have  given  up  the  fight,  which,  in  my  opinion,  could  not  have 
been  a  very  determined  one,  and  you  sent  me  a  message  to  my  prison  cell,  where  I  have 
been  confined  for  over  four  months,  and  where  I  have  to  pass  eighteen  hours  each  day 
in  a  space  six  by  twelve,  and  you  tell  me  that  you  have  abandonded  me  to  my  fate;  that 
you  would  not  intervene  any  further  in  my  behalf.  It  will  not  be  clear  to  the  public  that 
you  did  intervene  very  far. 

"British  subjects  "took  part  in  public  meetings  and  political  discussions  in  the 
United  States  during  the  slave  troubles.  Had  the  American  Government  cast  them 
into  prison  and  sentenced  them  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  without  trial,  and  refused  to 
give  the  British  minister  at  Washington  any  information  respecting  the  charge  against 
them,  what  would  the  British  minister  do  '  under  these  circumstances  '  ?  Fold  his  arms, 
take  the  matter  good  naturedly,  send  a  message  to  the  British  subjects  in  prison  that  he 
*  did  not  think  it  proper  to  intervene,  '  or  demand  his  passport  ? 

Yours,  respectfully, 

"  DANIEL  SWEENEY.  " 

On  April  15,  1882,  the  Senate  having  under  consideration  a  resolution  con- 
demning the  dilatory  and  unpatriotic  course  of  the  State  Department,  Mr.  Voor- 
hees  said  : 

"Sir,  what  is  the  attitude  of  the  American  Government  at  this  time  on  this  momen- 
tous question  ?  Is  it  one  which  inspires  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  and  pride  in  the  American 
heart?  I  appeal  to  the  record.  On  the  9th  day  of  the  last  month  this  body  made  inquiry 
in  the  following  form  after  the  condition  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  then  confined 
in  a  British  jail  : 

Whereas,  It  is  alleged  that  Daniel  McSweeny,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
lately  a  resident  of  the  State  of  California,  while  peaceably  sojourning  in  England,  has 
without  just  cause  been  imprisoned  by  the  British  Government ;  be  it  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  State  be,  and  is  hereby,    instructed   to  ascertain    the 


252  PROTECTION   OF  AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

cause  fox-  the  alleged  imprisonment  of  the  said  Daniel  McSvveeney,  and   make   report   to 
the  Senate  at  the  earliest  day  possible. 

"  On  the  20th  day  of  March,  eleven  days  after  the  passage  of  this  peremptory  resolu- 
tion, the  Secretary  of  State  transmitted  to  us  his  answer.  Every  particle  of  information 
on  the  subject  was  in  his  hands  when  the  resolution  reached  him,  and  could  have  been 
reported  in  twenty-four  hours  had  he  reported  'at  the  earliest  day  possible,'  as' 
instructed.  The  American  State  Department,  however,  has  always,  in  late  years,  taken 
its  greatest  leisure  and  proceeded  most  slowly  when  an  American  citizen  was  in  a  foreign 
prison,  and  this  diplomatic  custom  was  not  broken  in  the  present  instance.  But,  sir,  pre- 
pared as  I  was  for  the  exhibition  of  a  weak  foreign  policy  on  our  part,  I  was  utterly 
amazed  at  the  contents  of  the  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  State  in  this  case. 
It  appears  that  Daniel  McSweeny  was  arrested  June  2,  1881,  now  more  than  ten  months 
ago,  and  that  he  has  suffered  m  prison  from  that  day  to  this.  He  was  dragged  from  a 
bed  of  sickness,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife  and  children,  by  British  constables.  He  was 
guilty  of  no  crime,  not  even  the  shadow  of  any  crime  known  to  the  laws  of  any  civilized 
nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  No  one  will  pretend  that  he  was  ;  no  one  will  rise  here 
and  say  so.  If  the  party  so  long  in  power  in  this  Government  has  a  friend  on  this  floor 
who  will  risk  his  reputation  in  trying  to  point  out  the  guilt  of  McSweeney,  I  want  to 
hear  him.  Let  him  stand  forth  at  once  and  reconcile  us  if  he  can  to  the  policy  of  the 
Republican  party  in  relation  to  the  foreign-born  citizens.  This  extraordinary  document 
from  the  State  Department  tells  the  whole  miserable  story.  I  challenge  particular  atten- 
tion to  dates.  On  the  3d  day  of  August,  1881,  Julia  McSweeney  wrote  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  from  the  County  Donegal,  Ireland,  in  behalf  of  her  husband,  and  her  letter  was 
received  here  in  Washington  on  the  16th  day  of  the  same  month.  In  that  letter  the 
brave,  high-spirited  wife,  says  : 

"  '  Some  four  years  ago  I  came  with  my  family,  on  account  of  my  husband's  failing 
health,  to  reside  temporarily  in  this  country.  I  was  aware  that  England  claimed  this 
island,  but  I  was  under  the  impression  that  Americans  might  venture  to  travel  or  reside 
abroad  protected  by  their  flag,  but  in  this  I  was  mistaken.' 

"  And  then  she  proceeds,  with  a  woman's  keen  sense  of  wrong  and  outrage,  to 
describe  the  brutal  arrest  of  her  invalid  husband.    She  continues  : 

"  'It  is  not  alleged  that  he  committed  any  crime  or  violated  any  law.  He,  being  an 
American  citizen,  immediately  forwarded  his  naturalization  papers,  together  with  a 
solemn  protest  against  this  British  outrage,  to  the  American  minister  at  London.  That 
gentleman  answered  that  the  matter  would  be  laid  before  one  Granville,  and  that 
inquiries  would  be  made  as  to  the  ground  of  his  arrest.' 

"  And  still  there  was  no  response  to  this  American  wife  and  mother.  She 
invoked  the  justice  of  law  for  her  husband,  innocent  of  crime,  and  she  asked 
in  respectful  terms  whether  she  herself  would  be  protected,  or  left  to  share  his 
fate  because  she  could  not  help  sharing  his  opinions.  She  spoke  for  him,  for  herself, 
and  for  her  virtually  orphaned  children.  Sir,  a  government  or  the  department  of  a 
government  which  in  any  age  of  the  world's  history  would  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  burning 
words  like  these  could  not  complain  of  being  regarded  with  aversion  and  contempt  in 
all  quarters  of  the  globe.  A  policy  of  silence  and  indifference  under  such  circumstances 
is  so  unmanly  and  pusillanimous  that  every  American  head  will  be  bowed  with  shame 
and  every  American  heart  filled  with  humiliation  as  the  facts  of  this  case  become  gener- 
ally known.  I  feel  degraded  in  my  pride  as  a  citizen  of  the  American  Republic  when 
compelled  to  state,  as  I  now  do,  with  the  communication  of  the  State  Department  in  my 
hand,  that  until  six  long  and  weary  months  to  the  prisoner  after  this  Government,  had 
received  his  wife's  letter  not  a  single  step  was  taken  by  the  authorities  here  directing 
inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of  his  arrest,  and  then  only  when  influenced  to  do  so  by 
other  considerations,  as  I  shall  show,  than  a  just  appreciation  of  his  claims  to  protection. 

"Mr.  Jones,  of  Florida — Will  the  Senator  permit  me  to  ask  him  a  question,  without 
interrupting  him  ?     Is  McSweeney  now  in  prison  ? 

"Mr.  Voorhees — I  understand  so,  as  no  notice  whatever  has  been  given  of  his 
release. 

"The  woman's  appeal  lay  unheeded  in  the  official  pigeon-holes  of  the  Department 
whose  duty  it  was  to  protect  her  husband  and  all  his  family,  but  in  the  meantime  the 
voice  of  such  an  outrage  could  not  be  stifled,  and  was  finding  its  way  to  the  public  ear 
through  more  natural  channels  than  the  artificial  and  heartless  methods  of  diplomacy. 
On  the  23d  of  January,  1882,  there  was  published  in  the  San  Francisco  Exa?niner  a  letter 
from  the  prisoner  himself.  It  was  accompanied  by  an  editorial  in  which  it  was  stated, 
among  other  things,  that — 

"  'The  writer,  Daniel  McSweeney,  was  for  many  years  a  well-known  and  esteemed 
resident  of  San  Francisco,  doing  business  at  the  corner  of  Ninth  and  Howard  streets, 
where  he  was  engaged  in  the  cattle  trade.' 


PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN    CITIZENS    ABROAD.  253 

"That  he  had  a  large  family,  six  ol  his  children  being  with  their  mother  in  Ireland 
and  two  in  San  Francisco,  and  that  Mrs.  McSweeney's  health  was  being  rapidly  under- 
mined on  account  of  her  husband's  unjust  imprisonment.  Mr.  McSweeney's  letter  was 
written  to  his  daughter  in  California,  and  its  recitals  are  so  simple,  and  yet  so  horrible, 
coming  from  a  man  whose  rights  as  an  American  citizen  are  as  perfect  as  yours,  Mr. 
President,  or  as  mine,  that  I  cannot  retrain  from  laying  them  again  before  the  American 
Senate.  The  letter  is  written  from  "  Dundalk  jail,"  and  is  dated  "December  12,  1881  ": 

"  'My  Dear  Mamie  :  You  must  excuse  me  for  not  answering  your  last  two  letters 
sooner.  Since  winter  set  in  I  was  unable,  owing  to  severe  cold  in  this  dungeon,  to  sit 
still  long  enough  to  write  even  a  few  lines.  I  have  to  keep  moving  about  continually  in 
my  narrow  space  to  keep  from  freezing.  You  must  know  how  dreadful  it  is  to  be  locked 
up  eighteen  hours  a  day  in  this  cold,  damp  climate,  without  any  fire,  and,  worse  still, 
we  are  compelled  to  stand  or  walk  about  daily  for  five  hours  in  the  open  air,  in  a  damp, 
muddy  yard,  ankle-deep  in  water,  and  then  retire  to  our  cold  cells,  trembling  with  cold. 
It  requires  a  strong  constitution  to  stand  it  long.  I  fear  many  of  our  brave  fellows  will 
succumb  before  the  winter  is  over.  As  I  was  only  sentenced  for  sixteen  months,  I 
thought  at  first  I  might  live  it  out  ;  but  you  know  I  was  in  delicate  health  when  arrested, 
being  barely  able  to  move  about  after  a  severe  attack  of  sickness.' 

"Sir,  this  is  a  picture  of  wanton  brutality  such  as  barbarians  alone  inflict  on  pris- 
oners, whether  guilty  or  innocent.  It  shows  that  the  spirit  of  torture,  which  for  so  many 
ages  stained  and  blackened  English  history,  is  yet  alive  and  active,  and  especially  so 
when  the  victim  belongs  to  a  government  whose  administration  cares  nothing  for  his 
safety,  and  still  less,  if  possible,  for  its  own  honor. 

"But  to  continue  Mr.  McSweeney's  letter  : 

"  '  All  efforts  on  the  part  of  your  mother  and  all  our  friends  failed  to  discover  the  cause 
of  my  arrest.  I  appealed  to  Mr.  Lowell,  United  States  Minister  at  London,  for  protec- 
tion, but  he  answered  that  it  is  absurd  for  a  naturalized  citizen  of  the  United  States  to 
claim  protection.  He  says  that  even  an  American  citizen  could  only  have  recourse  to  an 
appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  British  Government  to  be  released.  He  added,  in  a  later 
communication,  that  the  British  Government  refused  to  give  him  any  information  about 
the  charge  against  me,  and  that  they  snubbed  him.' 

"Strong  as  this  statement  is,  contained  in  a  letter  written  in  jail  from  a  father  to  a 
daughter,  yet  I  will  show  that  it  is  the  exact  truth  when  I  come  to  comment  on  the  dis- 
patches and  official  conduct  of  Mr.  Lowell,  the  American  Minister  at  London.  Mr. 
McSweeney,  however,  proceeds  in  his  letter  : 

"  '  Your  mother  wrote  to  Mr.  Blaine  about  my  case,  but  that  gentleman  did  not  deign 
even  a  reply.  I  heard  nothing  whatever  from  him.  *  *  *  I  am  now  in  jail  going 
on  seven  months,  charged  with  no  crime,  and  not  even  a  shadow  of  suspicion  that  I 
violated  any  law  ;  and  when  our  American  Minister  asks  a  civil  question  about  me  he  is 
snubbed,  insulted,  and  his  flag  trampled  on  ;  but  he  does  not  appear  to  make  much  fuss 
about  it,  and  the  American  Government  takes  no  notice  of  the  question  any  more  than 
the  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  would.' 

"  Sir,  I  think  Mr.  McSweeney  does  injustice  to  the  foreign  policy  of  King  Kalakaua 
in  placing  it  as  low  and  weak  as  our  own.  *  *  * 

"  But,  sir,  there  is  another  feature  in  this  case  arising  out  of  the  correspondence 
before  us  which  demands  attention.  The  conduct  of  the  American  Minister  at  London 
and  his  conceptions  of  duty  on  a  question  of  such  vital  moment  are  matters  of  paramount 
importance  at  this  time.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  McSweeney  states  in  his  letter  to 
his  daughter  that  he  applied  to  Mr.  Lowell  for  protection,  and  that  he  applied  in  vain.  An 
inspection  of  Mr.  Lowell's  dispatches  and  letters  on  this  point  deepens  and  intensifies,  if 
possible,  the  sense  of  American  humiliation.  The  prisoner  alleged  in  his  application  for  pro- 
tection not  only  that  he  was  not  guilty  of  any  violation  of  law,  but  that  he  was  not  even  noti- 
fied of  any  criminal  charge  against  him  ;  that  he  was  in  prison  without  trial  and  without 
accusation.  With  this  statement  he  forwarded  his  naturalization  papers,  concerning 
whose  legality  and  sufficiency  no  question  has  ever  been  made.  With  the  case  thus  made 
out  before  him  the  first  step  taken  by  the  American  Minister  was  such,  I  venture  to  say,  as 
never  before  occurred  in  the  diplomatic  or  judicial  annals  of  the  human  race.  On  the 
10th  of  June,  1881,  he  instructed  the  vice-consul  at  Belfast  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
arrest,  and,  if  innocent — if  innocent — to  present  the  matter  in  the  competent  quarter, 
wherever  that  might  be,  and  ask  that  Mr.  McSweeney  be  released  or  brought  to  trial. 

"  I  defy  the  records  of  the  dullest-witted  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  United  States  to 
equal  in  the  stupid  evasion  of  duty  this  amazing  diplomatic  paper.  The  vice-consul  at 
Belfast  was  instructed  to  find  out,  if  he  could,  the  cause  of  McSweeney's  arrest  ;  then  in 
some  inconceivable  and  incomprehensible  way  he  was  to  pass  upon  the  entire  question 
of  this  unfortunate  man's  guilt  or  innocence.     It  was  to  be  done  without  a  judicial   trial 


254  PROTECTION   OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

for  that  had  been  refused  ;  without  witnesses,  for  the  vice-consul  had  no  power  to  call,, 
swear,  or  examine  them  in  such  a  case  ;  without  the  presence  of  McSweeney  himself, 
for  he  was  in  jail,  and  could  not  attend.  Under  the  instructions  of  Mr.  Lowell  the  pris- 
oner, while  in  the  Dundalk  jail,  with  a  British  turnkey  over  him,  was  to  be  tried  and 
convicted,  or  acquitted,  without  one  single  form  of  law,  but  simply  in  the  void  and' 
empty  mind  of  a  vice-consul  at  Belfast.  But  the  result  of  this  trial,  not  in  a  court  of 
law,  but  in  the  uninformed  mental  processes  of  the  vice-consul,  was  perhaps  to  be  the 
most  astounding  feature  of  this  whole  disgraceful  business.  The  vice-consul  at  Belfast 
was  instructed  by  the  American  Minister  that  if  he  found  McSweeney  innocent  then  he 
was  to  ask,  not  demand,  but  ask  that  he  be  released  or  brought  to  trial  ;  and  it  seems 
from  the  dispatch  that  which  measure  of  relief,  release,  or  trial  he  would  ask  was  left  to 
himself  to  determine. 

"  If  this  is  not  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  that  a  man's 
right  to  a  trial  before  the  law  was  made  to  depend  upon  his  ascertained  innocence  before- 
hand, then  my  reading  is  at  fault.  If  it  is  not  also  the  first  instance  in  which  a  respect- 
able government  was  ever  known  to  shrink  from  demanding  a  fair  and  open  trial  for  one 
of  its  own  citizens  imprisoned  in  a  foreign  country  until  his  innocence  was  established, 
then  I  will  confess  that  I  have  overlooked  the  degrading  example  which  we  are  following. 
The  dispatch  of  Mr.  Lowell  to  the  vice-consul  at  Belfast  would  be  a  farce  if  it  were  not  a 
crime.  It  marks  his  total  absolute  unfitness  for  the  place  he  holds.  The  man  whose 
methods  of  thought,  whose  education  and  legal  training  could  give  birth  to  such  a  docu- 
ment as  this,  can  not  be  trusted  with  the  safety  of  American  citizens  or  with  the  honor  of 
this  Government.  He  reverses  every  rule  of  human  responsibility  to  civilized  jurispru- 
dence. He  appears  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  every  man  is  innocent  in  the  eye  of  the  law 
until  his  guilt  is  proven.  He  assumes  McSweeney's  guilt  and  requires  his  innocence  to> 
be  established  before  his  demand  for  a  legal  trial  will  be  presented  to  the  British 
Government. 

"  Instead  of  saying  to  the  British  Government  that  this  man  was  an  American  citizen,, 
that  he  denied  all  violation  of  law,  that  the  law  itself  presumed  him  innocent,  and  that,, 
therefore,  he  demanded  for  him  a  trial,  Mr.  Lowell's  position  was  that  only  in  case  the 
vice-consul  at  Belfast  should  be  satisfied  of  McSweeney's  innocence  was  the  request  to  be 
made  for  his  trial  or  discharge. 

"  But  what  investigation,  in  point  of  fact,  was  made  under  the  instructions  of 
the  American  Minister  into  McSweeney's  guilt  or  innocence  ?  Absolutely  none, 
whatever.  It  was  enough  that  the  guardian  of  American  rights  abroad  was- 
answered  with  insolent  brevity  that  the  prisoner  was  '  reasonably  suspected, '  not 
that  he  was  charged  upon  oath  or  affirmation,  not  that  he  had  been  indicted  by  a  grand 
jury  or  committed  by  an  examining  magistrate,  not  that  he  had  committed  a  breach  of 
the  peace  or  been  taken  in  the  act  of  violating  law,  but  that  he  was  '  suspected  '  by  some 
servile  English  detective  of  a  feeling,  not  an  act — a  feeling  in  common  with  the 
enlightened  and  humane  sentiment  of  the  whole  human  race  hostile  to  the  colossal  iniquity 
of  British  spoliation,  rapine,  lust,  and  murder  in  Ireland. 

"  Upon  receipt  of  this  atrocious  answer,  the  American  Minister,  in  utter  abandonment 
of  the  laws  of  his  own  country  and  without  pride  or  shame,  announced  that  '  no  further- 
means  of  ascertaining  the  justice  of  the  accusation  were  open  to  the  vice-consul.'  He 
never  afterward  officially  broached  the  subject  to  the  authorities  of  Great  Britain.  He 
tells  us,  indeed,  that  at  a  subsequent  date  Mr.  McSweeney  having  asserted  his  innocence, 
he  ventured  unofficially,  disrobing  himself  of  all  weight  as  a  representative  of  this 
government,  to  communicate  this  circumstance,  and  to  ask  that  the  case  might  be 
considered  favorably.  Then,  however,  Mr.  Lowell  was  completely  and  perpetually 
silenced  by  the  curt  and  distinct  reply  of  Lord  Granville,  '  that  under  no  circumstances 
would  his  request  be  granted.'  Brow-beaten,  insulted,  and  without  the  proper  spirit  to 
resent  arrogance  or  to  execute  American  law,  he  sheltered  himself  under  the  expressed 
belief,  as  will  be  seen  on  page  7  of  the  published  correspondence,  that  the  prisoner  was 
'no  more  innocent  than  the  majority  of  those  under  arrest.'     '  No  more  innocent !  ' 

"Mr.  Jones,  of  Florida — On  that  point  I  wish  the  Senator  would  observe  that  the 
language  of  Lord  Granville,  as  reported  by  Mr.  Lowell  to  the  State  Department,  is  that 
under  no  circumstance  would  any  explanation  be  given  to  the  American  Minister  of  the 
cause  of  the  arrest  of  an  American  citizen,  whether  naturalized  or  native-born,  beyond 
what  could  be  found  on  the  face  of  the  warrant  under  which  he  was  arrested. 

"Mr.  Voorhees — I  have  the  statement  before  me,  and  have  so  repeated  it.  'No- 
more  innocent,'  says  the  American  Minister;  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  McSweeney 
is  any  more  innocent  than  the  rest  of  them.  Will  any  Senator  rise  in  his  place  and  risk 
his  reputation  by  saying  that  a  man  who  has  given  such  an  expression  as  that  ought  to 
be  retained  in  any  branch  of  the  public  service  ?  Comparative  innocence  !  Everybody  is 
innocent  until  after  a  fair  trial  and  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  yet  the  American  Minister  at 


PROTECTION   OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS    ABROAD.  255 

London  dares,  with  infinite  hardihood,  to  assume  and  assert  that  all  the  untried,  uncon- 
victed 'suspects'  in  British  jails,  who  are  citizens  of  the  United  States,  are  guilty,  and 
that  Daniel  McSweeney  is  as  guilty  as  the  others.  He  does  not  know,  he  cannot  know, 
whether  this  is  true  or  false;  1  presume  he  does  not  care. 

"But  this  is  not  all.  Outside  ot  and  beyond  the  meagre  and  lifeless  records  of  the 
Department  of  State,  a  few  letters  from  the  American  Minister  to  the  American  in  prison 
have  found  their  way  into  the  public  press.  They  throw  a  light  on  our  foreign  policy  at 
this  time  which  ought  to  be  fully  understood  and  thoroughly  condemned.  I  did  not  sup- 
pose that  at  this  late  day  there  was  any  doubt  in  any  intelligent  mind  as  to  the  equality 
of  the  naturalized  with  the  native-born  American  citizen  in  his  right  to  the  protection  of 
his  government.  I  thought  that  question  forever  settled  by  the  diplomatic  writings  of 
Cass,  Marcy,  Webster,  and  other  great  Secretaries  of  State  in  past  generations.  But  in 
this  it  seems  I  was  mistaken.  The  American  Minister  at  London  asserts  a  distinction 
between  naturalized  and  native-born  citizens  of  the  United  States  as  odious  to  every  prin- 
ciple of  justice  as  the  ancient  spirit  of  the  alien  and  sedition  laws.  Let  the  following 
letter  attest  the  truth  of  this  statement: 

Legation  of  the  United  States,      \ 
London,  September  22,  1881.  f 

Sir:  I  have  to  acknowledge  your  letter  of  the  17th  instant.  I  have  not  thought  it 
proper  to  make  any  application  for  your  release  from  prison  for  the  following  reasons: 
The  coercion  act,  however  exceptional  and  arbitrary  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  and  fun- 
damental principles  of  both  English  and  American  jurisprudence,  is  still  the  law  of  the 
land,  and  controls  all  parties  domiciled  in  the  proclaimed  district  of  Ireland,  whether 
they  are  British  subjects  or  not.  It  would  be  manifestly  futile  to  claim  that  naturalized 
citizens  of  the  United  States  should  be  excepted  from  its  operation.  The  only  case,  in 
my  opinion,  in  which  I  ought  to  intervene  would  be  when  an  American  citizen  who  was 
in  Ireland  attending  exclusively  to  his  own  business,  and  taking  no  part  whatever  in  pub- 
lic meetings  or  political  discussions,  should  be  arrested.  Under  these  circumstances  it 
would  be  proper  to  appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  government  here  on  the  ground  of  mis- 
take or  misapprehension,  and  ask  for  the  release  of  the  prisoner. 

I  have  communicated  these  views  to  the  Department  of  State,  and  have  received  so 
far  no  instructions  in  a  contrary  spirit.  It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  the  leasons  above 
given  for  intervention  exist  in  your  case  so  far  as  I  understand  it. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant,  J.  R.  LOWELL. 

Mr.  D.  McSweeney. 

"Here  we  find  the  terms  'naturalized  citizen'  and  'American  citizen'  used  in  con- 
tradistinction to  each  other.  For  the  naturalized  citizen  Mr.  Lowell  says  it  would  be 
manifestly  futile  to  claim  protection  from  the  operations  of  an  act  of  Parliament  which  he 
admits  to  be  '  contrary  to  the  spirit  and  fundamental  principles  of  both  English  and  Amer- 
ican jurisprudence.'  On  the  other  hand,  if  'an  American  citizen  who  was  in  Ireland 
attending  exclusively  to  his  own  business,  and  taking  no  part  whatever  in  public  meetings 
or  political  discussions,  should  be  arrested,'  the  representative  of  American  honor  abroad 
thinks  he  would  venture  to  appeal  to  the  courtesy  of  the  British  Government  on  the 
ground  not  of  right,  but  of  mistake  or  misapprehension.  The  rule  of  action  here  declared 
in  behalf  of  the  native  American  will  excite  the  contempt  of  the  civilized  world,  and  yet 
it  is  somewhat  less  infamous  than  the  policy  laid  down  in  reference  to  those  whom  our 
laws  have  adopted  as  citizens.  There  is  a  discrimination  against  the  American  of  foreign 
birth  inconsistent  with  American  law  and  with  the  law  of  nations." 

The  above  cases  have  been  selected  to  illustrate  the  "sickening  sycophancy" 
of  our  government  to  that  of  Great  Britain  at  the  sacrifice  of  our  national  honor. 
The  other  cases  present  no  features  noticeably  different  from  those  given.  It  is 
the  same  story,  from  beginning  to  end,  of  disgraceful  subserviency,  under  the  title 
of  "  diplomatic  courtesy." 

Interesting  Correspondence. 

The  following  extracts  from  correspondence  on  this  subject  will  furnish  some 
"mighty  interesting  reading :" 

"Mr.  Barrows  to  Mr. McCormack. 

"Consulate  of  the  United  States,  \ 
"  Dublin,  February  24,  1882.         \ 
"  Sir  :     I  am  in  receipt  of  yours  of  the  23d,  and  in  reply  beg  to  inform  you  that  the 
fact  of  your  being  an  American  citizen  confers   upon   you   no   immunity  from  arrest  and 
imprisonment  under  the  coercion  act.      The  minister  can  interfere  only  : 


256  PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN    CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

"  1st.  When  such  person  being  in  Ireland  in  the  prosecution  of  his  lawful  private  busi- 
ness, and  taking  no  part  in  political  meetings  or  partisan  disturbances,  has  been  arrested 
by  obvious  mistake  ;  or, 

"  2d.  When  a  distinction  has  been  made  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  prisoner  on  the 
ground  of  his  American  nationality. 

"  The  above  are  the  decisions  of  Minister  Lowell,  under  whose  instructions  I  am 
acting.  Should  there  be  a  peculiar  hardship  in  your  case,  not  affected  by  these  decisions, 
please  submit  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  together  with  evidence  of  your  American  citizen- 
ship,  and  the  matter  shall  have  my  prompt  attention. 

"I  remain,  etc., 

"  B.  H.  BARROWS,  United  States  Consul." 

Mr.  Barrows,  reiterating  the  decision  of  Minister  Lowell,  seems  to  be  better 
informed  as  to  the  effect  of  a  British  law  than  the  mandates  of  an  American  act  of 
Congress.  Under  the  act  of  1868  it  was  the  duty  of  our  Government  to  demand 
an  immediate  trial  or  release.  Our  representative,  however,  while  an  acknowl- 
edged citizen  is  languishing  in  a  dungeon,  spends  the  valuable  time  due  to  a  suffer- 
ing countryman  in  construing  British  laws. 

"Naas  Bastile,  April  18,  1882. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  Herewith  I  forward  you  certificate  of  my  American  citizenship,  and 
beg  to  request  that  you  will  lose  no  time  in  forwarding  it  to  Mr.  Lowell.  I  lost  the 
original  document,  and  in  consequence  of  your  reply  to  me  last  February,  I  neglected 
sending  for  a  duplicate  until  the  20th  ultimo.  I  trust  that  Mr.  Lowell  will  lose  no  time 
in  representing  my  case,  as  I  am  now  undergoing  my  fourth  month's  imprisonment 
without  the  slighest  shadow  of  a  charge  against  me.  Of  course  my  business  as  a 
journalist  and  newspaper  proprietor  is  suffering  severely  through  this  most  wanton 
outrage  perpetrated  on  me  by  the  British  Government,  and  I  think  it  would  be  nothing 
more  than  ordinary  justice  that  Mr.  Lowell  should  demand  compensation  for  me,  for  the 
losses  which  I  have  sustained.  I  shall  expect  at  least  that  my  trial  or  unconditional 
release  will  be  demanded  forthwith.  Surely  four  months  should  be  time  enough  for 
the  British  authorities  to  trump  up  a  charge  against  me  if  they  could,  but  I  defy  them  to 

do  so. 

"  It  might  be  necessary  for  me  to  explain  the  slight  difference  between  the  name 
under  which  I  was  arrested  and  that  of  my  certificate  of  citizenship.  The  name  under 
which  I  was  arrested  is  John  R.  McCormack,  the  R  being  used  by  me  from  my  mother, 
whose  name  is  Ryan,  in  order  to  distinguish  me  from  several  John  McCormacks  m 
Tipperary,  amongst  them  three  first  cousins  of  my  own.  Of  course  I  am  prepared  to 
prove  that  I  am  the  actual  person  mentioned  in  the  inclosed  duplicate. 

"Your  faithful  fellow-citizen, 

"JOHN  R.  McCORMACK." 

The  following  shows  to  what  an  extent  was  carried  the  ' '  diplomatic  courtesy  " 
of  the  State  Department.  Nothing  but  ignorance  or  impertinence,  barring 
"  diplomatic  courtesy,"  could  possibly  have  sent  the  minister  from  England  to 
-complain  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  wording  of  a  resolution  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  : 

' '  Mr.  West  to  Earl  Granville. 
"Washington,  January  25,  1882.      (Received  February  12.) 

"My  Lord:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  your  lordship  that  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Affairs  has  reported  back  to  the  House  a  resolution  to  the  following  effect : 

"  'That  the  President  be  requested  to  obtain  from  the  British  Government  a  list  of  all 
American  citizens,  naturalized  or  native-born,  under  arrest  or  imprisonment  by  authority 
of  said  o-overnment,  with  a  statement  of  the  causes  of  such  arrest  or  imprisonment,  especi- 
ally of  such  citizens  as  may  have  been  thus  arrested  and  imprisoned  under  a  suspension 
of  habeas  corpus  in  Ireland,  and  if  not  incompatible  with  the  public  interest,  that  he  com- 
municate such  information  as  he  receives,  together  with  all  the  correspondence  now  on 
file  in  the  Department  of  State  relating  to  any  existing  arrest  or  imprisonment  of  citizens 
as  aforesaid  ;'  upon  which  Mr.  Robinson,  of  New  York,  made  a  violent  speech,  copy  of 
which  is  herewith  inclosed,  against  the  British  Government,  and  said,  alluding  to  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  importation  of  hogs  into  England  from  America  some  time  ago,  which 
created  so  much  sensation,  '  Oh !  that  we  only  paid  as  much  attention,  as  much  honor, 
to  a  live  American  citizen  as  we  do  to  a  dead  Cincinnati  hog  !'    I  called  Mr.  Frelinghuy- 


PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD.  257 

sen's  attention  to  the  terms  of  this  resolution,  and  to  the  language  used  in  the  debate  upon 
it,  but  he  said  he  had  no  knowledge  of  any  such  resolution  as  I  had  now  alluded  to,  and 
which  I  showed  to  him,  nor  could  he  tell  me  what  was  likely  to  be  the  ultimate  fate  of 
it.  I  remarked  to  Mr.  Freliughuysen  that,  although  not  much  importance  need  be 
attached  to  such  language  as  that  used  by  Mr.  Robinson,  still  the  wording  of  the  resolution 
was  calculated  to  produce  a  bad  effect,  and  might  cause  unnecessary  irritation. 

"Mr.  Frelinghuysen  said  he  would  make  inquiries  as  to  what  had  taken  place  in  the 
committee  respecting  the  resolution.  " 

"  I  have,  &c, 

"  L.  S.  SACKVILLE  WEST.  ' » 

Case    of    O'Connor. 

In  a  recent  interview  in  the  New  York  Herald  Hon.  Perry  Belmont  states  this 
case  as  follows  : 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  cases,  perhaps,  was  that  of  Dennis  H.  O'Connor.  That 
case  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Department  of  State  about  November,  1881.  On 
the  14th  of  February,  1882,  Mr.  Cox  of  New  York,  brought  it  to  the  notice  of  the  House. 
The  facts  then  appeared  to  be  these  :  Dennis  H.  O'Connor  was  naturalized  as  an  Ameri- 
can citizen  in  1875.  He  had  lived  for  some  time  in  Ireland  and  was  in  business  there, 
when  in  1881  he  was  arrested  as  a  '  suspect.'  He  was  in  ill  health  and  his  imprisonment 
was  likely  to  prove  very  injurious  if  not  fatal  to  him. 

"Mr.  P.  C.  O'Connor,  the  brother  of  the  prisoner,  in  November,  1881,  laid  these 
facts  in  writing  before  the  Department  of  State.  In  doing  so  he  was  supported  in  his 
request  by  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore  in  a  note  of  introduction  " — and  Mr.  Belmont,  turning 
to  the  files  of  the  Congressinnal  Record  for  February,  1882,  indicated  the  following  note, 
which  was  read  by  Mr.  Cox  in  the  course  of  a  speech  : 

Dear  Sir — Permit  me  to  present  to  your  kind  attention  Mr.  P.  C.  O'Connor,  of  this 
city,  who  desires  to  see  you  relative  to  his  brother,  a  citizen  of  this  conntry,  who  is  under 
arrest  in  Ireland.      I  commend  him  as  a  gentleman  of  honor,  character  and  intelligence. 
With  kind  regards,  very  sincerely  yours, 

WILLIAM  PINCKNEY  WHYTE, 

Mayor  of  Baltimore. 

Secretary  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"  Under  date  of  November  25,  1881,"  Mr.  Belmont  resumed,  "  a  reply  was  made  by 
the  Department  to  Mr.  O'Connor's  statement  of  his  brother's  case.     Here  it  is  :  " 

Mr.  Belmont  pointed  to  the  appended  letter,  which  appears  on  the  same  page  of  the 
Congressional  Record  as  that  just  given.  It  bears  Mr.  Blaine's  signature,  and  the  most 
significant  passage  of  the  document  is  the  following  : 

The  case  of  your  brother,  Mr.  Dennis  H.  O'Connor,  will  take  the  same  course  as 
those  which  have  preceded  it,  and  I  can  only  express  the  hope  that  the  efforts  in  his 
behalf  may  result  in  his  early  liberation.  In  this  connection  I  must,  however,  remind 
you  that  the  act  of  Parliament  under  which  Mr.  O'Connor  is  held  is  a  law  of  Great 
Britian,  and  it  is  an  elementary  principle  of  public  law  that  in  such  case  the  government 
of  that  country  in  the  exercise  of  its  varied  functions — judicial  and  executive — administers 
and  interprets  the  law  in  question.  The  right  of  every  government  m  this  respect  is 
absolute  and  sovereign,  and  every  person  who  voluntarily  brings  himself  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  country,  whether  permanently  or  temporarily,  is  subject  to  the  operation 
of  its  laws,  whether  he  be  a  citizen  or  a  mere  resident,  so  long  as  in  the  case  of  the  alien 
resident  no  treaty  stipulation  or  principle  of  international  law  is  contravened  by  the  pro- 
ceedings taken  against  him. 

In  stating  this  familiar  pnnciple  no  more  is  conceded  to  Great  Britain  than  every 
country  may  of  right  demand,  and  it  is  one  of  the  sovereign  rights  that  the  government  of 
the  United  States  has  always  insisted  upon  and  maintained  for  itself. 

"  The  whole  point  is  whether  or  not  a  '  principle  of  international  law  was  contra- 
vened '  by  the  proceedings  taken  against  Mr.  O'Connor.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a 
principle  of  international  law  was  contravened,  and  such  appeared  to  be  the  view  after- 
ward taken  by  the  Department  of  State  under  Mr.  Frelinghuysen.  On  the  14th  of  March, 
1882,  the  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  received  from  Secretary  Frelinghuysen 
a  reply  to  a  communication  asking  him  what  steps  had  been  taken  for  the  relief  of  the 
American  citizens  arrestod  in  Ireland  under  the  Coercion  act.  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  said 
that  on  March  4,  he  had  directed  Minister  Lowell,  by  cable,  to  ask  that  Americans 
detained  under  the  Coercion  act  should  he  brought  to  a  speedy  trial.  Mr.  Lowell,  the 
Secretary  said,  had  replied  by  cable  that  he  had  carried  out  these  instructions.  This 
shows  what  even  a  very  conservative  Secretary  of  State  might  do  for  citizens  imprisoned 
abroad. 

17 


258  PROTECTION   OF   AMERICAN    CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

Democratic  Principles  and  Protests. 

Senator  Voorhees'  Speech. 

In  protesting  against  the  Republican  indifference  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
our  citizens  abroad  in  the  speech  from  which  we  have  above  quoted,  Senator 
Voorhees  stated  the  Democratic  principles,  as  follows: 

The  security,  the  dignity,  and  the  inviolability  of  American  citizenship  constitute, 
more  than  all  other  things  combined,  the  strength  and  honor  of  this  Government.  Any 
policy  emanating  from  any  source  which  ignores  in  the  slightest  degree  this  great  fact 
calls  for  prompt  and  stern  condemnation.  A  government  which  is  indifferent  to  the  fate 
of  its  own  citizens,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  which  fails  to  respond  boldly  and  swiftly 
to  their  appeals  for  justice,  and  leaves  them  to  waste  away  their  lives  in  prison,  untried,, 
unconvicted,  is  unworthy  of  allegiance  and  ought  not  to  have  and  will  not  long  retain  a 
respectable  position  among  the  independent  powers  of  the  earth.  Duties  are  reciprocal 
between  the  Government  on  the  one  hand  and  its  citizens  on  the  other. 

A  failure  to  perform  these  duties  by  either  party  to  the  political  compact  is  fraught 
with  weakness,  danger,  and  disgrace.  If  the  citizen  fails  to  keep  upright  faith  with  his 
Government,  and  bear  true  obedience  to  its  laws  in  peace  and  in  war,  he  weakens,  and 
perhaps  totally  destroys  his  claim  upon  that  Government  for  protection.  If  the  Govern- 
ment itself,  however,  abandons  the  citizen  to  injustice  and  oppression,  permits  him  to  be 
stripped  naked  of  all  legal  security  or  defense,  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  his  just  demands,  and 
leaves  him  to  suffer  indefinite  terms  of  imprisonment  without  trial,  either  in  his  own  or 
foreign  countries,  no  one  will  deny  that  the  obligations  of  the  citizen  are  at  an  end.  And 
it  is  equally  true  that  such  an  example  of  weakness,  timidity,  or  indifference  on  the  part 
of  the  Government  must  go  far  to  shake  the  respect  and  attachment  of  the  whole  body  of 

its  people,  and  to  render  it  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  neighboring  nations. 
****** 

Lewis  Cass,  near  the  close  of  his  long  and  illustrious  life,  while  Secretary  of  State  in 
1859,  interposing  for  the  protection  of  an  American  citizen  of  German  birth,  held  the 
following  doctrine  in  a  letter  to  the  United  States  Minister  at  Berlin  : 

"  The  right  of  expatriation  cannot  at  this  day  be  doubted  or  denied  in  the  United 
States.  The  idea  has  been  repudiated  ever  since  the  origin  of  our  Government  that  a 
man  is  bound  to  remain  forever  in  the  country  of  his  birth.  The  doctrine  of  perpetual 
allegiance  is  a  relic  of  barbarism  which  has  been  disappearing  from  Christendom  during 
the  last  century." 

Sir,  this  relic  of  barbarism,  as  it  is  here  justly  styled,  has  practically  disappeared  from 
every  quarter  of  Christendom,  except  the  American  embassy  in  London  and  the  British 
jails  in  Ireland.  But  still  earlier  than  the  letter  of  General  Cass,  from  which  I  have 
read,  the  law  of  American  honor,  strength  and  glory  was  announced  in  such  majesty  of 
truth  and  power  that  I  recur  to  it  now  in  these  degenerate  days  with  the  feeling  of  a 
traveler  m  the  burning  desert  as  he  approaches  the  cooling,  healing  waters  of  a  fountain 
in  the  depths  of  a  grove.  William  L.  Marcy  ;  honored  forever  be  his  name  !  What 
American  can  read  his  immortal  letter  to  Hulseman,  touching  the  arrest  and  imprison- 
ment of  Martin  Koszta  by  the  Austrian  Empire,  without  feeling  his  patriotism  kindle  into 
a  flame  and  his  pride  of  country  rise  high  toward  the  zenith  ?  On  the  26th  day  of  Sep- 
tember, 1853,  the  great  Democratic  Secretary  of  State  proclaimed  the  following  grand 
utterances  to  the  listening,  expectant,  and  wondering  nations  of  the  earth  : 

"Whenever,  by  the  operation  of  the  law  of  nations,  an  individual  becomes  clothed 
with  our  national  character,  be  he  native-born  or  naturalized  citizen,  an  exile  driven  from 
his  early  home  by  political  oppression,  or  an  emigrant  enticed  from  it  by  the  hopes  of  a 
better  fortune  for  himself  and  his  posterity,  he  can  claim  the  protection  of  this  Govern- 
ment, and  it  may  respond  to  that  claim  without  being  obliged  to  explain  its  conduct  to 
any  foreign  power,  for  it  is  its  duty  to  make  its  nationality  respected  by  other  nations 
and  respectable  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  *  *  *  International  law  looks  only 
to  the  national  character  in  determining  what  country  has  the  right  to  protect.  If  a 
person  goes  from  this  country  abroad  with  the  nationality  of  the  United  States,  this  law 
enjoins  upon  other  nations  to  respect  him  in  regard  to  protection  as  an  American  citizen." 

Koszta  was  not  yet  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  ;  he  had  simply  declared  his  inten- 
tion to  become  one.  McSweeney's  naturalization  papers  are  full  and  complete.  Koszta 
had  a  domicil  in  this  country  less  than  two  years.  McSweeney  has  resided,  a  well- 
known  and  respected  business  man,  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  San  Francisco.  Yet,  having 
laid  down  the  principles  of  public  law  on  the  subject  of  American  rights  throughout  the 
world,  Mr.  Marcy  continues  : 


PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD.  259 

"Giving  effect  to  these  well-established  principles  and  applying  them  to  the  facts  in 
the  case,  the  result  is  that  Koszta  acquired,  while  in  the  United  -States,  their  national 
character  ;  that  he  retained  that  character  when  he  was  seized  at  Smyrna,  and  that  he 
had  a  right  to  be  respected  as  such  while  there  by  Austria  and  every  other  foreign  power. 
The  right  of  a  nation  to  protect  and  require  others  to  respect  at  home  and  abroad  all 
who  are  clothed  with  its  nationality  is  no  new  doctrine,  now  for  the  first  time  brought 
into  operation  by  the  United  States.  It  is  common  to  all  nations,  and  has  had  the 
sanction  of  their  practice  for  ages,  but  it  is  new  that  at  this  late  period,  when  the  United 
States  assert  a  claim  to  it  as  a  common  inheritance,  it  should  at  once  be  discovered 
that  it  is  a  doctrine  fraught  with  danger  and  likely  to  compromit  tne  peace  of  the 
world.  The  United  States  see  no  cause  for  alarm  ;  no  reason  for  renouncing  for  them- 
selves what  others  have  so  long  and  so  harmlessly  enjoyed.*" 

Sir,  these  are  high,  heroic  words,  and  they  well  became  the  occasion.  An  American 
sloop-of-war,  the  Saint  Louis,  Captain  Ingraham,  a  son  of  South  Carolina,  commanding, 
had,  with  shotted  guns  and  lighted  matches,  rescued  in  a  distant  sea,  from  chains,  dun- 
geons and  certain  death  the  person  of  a  wanderer  and  an  exile  who  had  barely  touched 
our  shores,  but  who  in  that  brief  stay  had  clothed  himself  with  the  mantle  of  American 
nationality.  The  imperial  house  of  Hapsburg  demanded  that  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  should  deliver  him  up  to  Austrian  vengeance  ;  that  it  should  disavow  the 
conduct  of  Captain  Ingraham  and  all  the  American  agents  in  the  affair  ;  punish  them 
severely,  and  then  tender  to  Austria  such  satisfaction  as  she  might  deem  proportionate  to 
the  outrage  complained  of.  And  in  order  to  enforce  this  demand  upon  the  United  States, 
Austria  applied  to  the  principal  powers  of  Europe,  and  actually  induced  them  to  warn 
and  admonish  this  Government  in  regard  to  its  duty  in  the  premises. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances,  with  the  whole  world  looking  on,  and  with  all 
Europe  in  sympathy  with  Austria,  that  Marcy  wrote  his  immortal  communication  to  the 
representative  of  Austrian  power  and  despotism.  The  Hungarian  refugee  was  not 
delivered  up  ;  the  conduct  of  Ingraham  and  the  other  American  agents  at  Smyrna  was 
not  disavowed  ;  they  were  not  punished  ;  they  were  honored,  and  no  other  kind  of  sat- 
isfaction than  this  was  ever  tendered  to  the  Empire  of  Austria.  [Manifestation  of 
applause  in  the  galleries.]  Now  an  American  Secretary  of  State  is  content  for  the  British 
Government  to  inform  him  distinctly,  through  the  American  minister,  that  it  is  none  of 
his  business  why  American  citizens  are  in  British  jails  ;  that  the  cause  of  their  arrest  will 
not  be  given,  and  that  they  shall  neither  be  tried  nor  released.  The  contrast  is  complete  ; 
it  can  go  no  further. 

But  it  is  said  by  the  apologists  of  British  arrogance  and  American  pusillanimity  that 
under  the  act  of  Parliament,  known  as  the  Coercion  act,  it  is  lawful  for  men  and  women 
to  be  arrested,  sentenced,  and  indefinitely  imprisoned  who  have  committed  no  crime, 
and  are  charged  with  none,  but  who  have  fallen  under  the  suspicion  of  the  spies  and 
informers  of  the  British  Government.  We  hear  these  unfortunate  captives  styled 
"suspects,"  not  criminals,  but  "suspects." 

They  are  not  alleged  to  have  violated  any  law,  but  they  are  suspected  of  an  intention 
to  discuss  those  questions,  as  old  as  human  existence,  which  involve  the  scant  measure 
of  bread  on  their  poor  tables,  and  the  hard  beds  on  which  they  and  their  children  sleep 
of  nights.  The  law  of  sworn  accusation,  indictment,  public  trial,  and  conviction  before 
imprisonment  under  sentence,  has  given  way  to  the  law  of  suspicion.  There  can  be  no 
more  atrocious  system  of  jurisprudence  than  this  ;  there  can  be  no  blacker  crime  com- 
mitted by  a  government  against  its  own  citizens,  or  those  who  happen  to  sojourn  within 
its  barbarous  jurisdiction.  Tiberius  imprisoning  and  slaughtering  Roman  citizens  upon 
suspicions  poured  into  his  ears  by  his  infamous  parasite,  Sejanus,  presented  not  such  a 
spectacle  of  horror  as  the  British  Government  in  its  policy  towards  Ireland  now  presents. 

The  evil-minded  tyrant  of  Rome  lived  in  a  darker  age  than  this.  He  was  a  heathen ;  this 
is  the  nineteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and  near  its  majestic  close.  Such  an  enactment 
as  the  Coercion  act  now  in  operation  in  Ireland  cannot  be  law  at  this  period  of  the  world ; 
it  is  the  subversion  of  law  ;  it  openly  assaults  every  element  of  justice,  human  and  divine; 
it  grapples  with  and  seeks  to  overturn  those  immutable,  eternal,  inherent  rights  of  man 
which  are  higher  and  stronger  than  all  the  acts  of  repressive  legislation  in  the  entire 
annals  of  despotism.  If  it  is  claimed  that  a  government  has  the  right  to  legislate  for  its 
own  citizens  as  it  pleases,  even  this  cannot  be  admitted  without  qualification.  The 
civilized  nations  of  the  earth  are  not  compelled  to  stand  silently  by  and  see  one  of  their 
number  convert  itself  into  a  prison  or  a  charnel  house.  International  law  recognizes  a 
point  where  they  may  interfere  in  the  interests  of  humanity.  But  I  am  only  insisting 
now  that  Great  Britain  shall  not  be  allowed  to  consign  American  citizens  to  chains  and 
death,  whatever  she  may  do  with  her  own,  by  virtue  of  an  act  which  uproots,  overturns, 
and  annihilates  every  vestige  of  freedom  and  law. 


260  PROTECTION   OF    AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

lam  insisting  that  when  the  American,  "be  he  a  native-born  or  naturalized  citizen," 
goes  abroad  in  the  peaceful  pursuit  of  his  own  affairs,  whether  of  business  or  pleasure, 
the  nationality  which  he  carries  shall  protect  him  as  well  from  judicial  as  from  clandes- 
tine murder  ;  from  the  illegal  acts  ot  foreign  governments  as  well  as  from  the  brutal  con- 
duct of  foreign  mobs.  Under  existing  treaties  with  foreign  powers  American  citizens 
who  happen  within  their  jurisdiction  are  entitled  to  the  best,  not  the  worst,  treatment 
which  these  powers  can  furnish  to  their  own  people.  Less  than  this  would  render  our 
citizenship  delusion  and  a  snare  to  all  who  relied  upon  it  in  the  hour  of  need. 

Sir,  let  us  look  this  momentous  question  plainly  in  the  face.  We  can  less  afford  to 
ignore  it  or  trifle  with  it  than  any  other  government  on  the  globe.  All  our  interests, 
traditions,  and  every  sentiment  of  sacred  honor  bind  us  to  the  most  vigilant  protection  of 
our  citizens  wherever  they  may  be  and  whatever  their  nativity.  The  American  Repub- 
lic was  established  by  the  united  valor  and  wisdom  of  the  lovers  of  liberty 
from  all  lands.  The  Frenchman  with  his  gay  disregard  of  danger,  the 
German  with  his  steady  courage,  the  Pole  with  his  high  enthusiasm, 
and  the  Irisnman  with  all  these  qualities  combined  were  here  in  the 
long  and  bloody  contest  for  American  independence.  La  Fayette,  the  beloved  of  Wash- 
ington ;  Hamilton,  who  rode  by  his  side  and  assisted  to  organize  the  Government  ; 
Pulaski,  who  fell  at  the  head  ol  his  legions  at  Savannah  ;  De  Kalb  who  died  upon  the 
field  with  all  his  sabre  wounds  in  front ;  Montgomery,  who  gave  up  his  life  in  the  storm 
of  Quebec  ;  Steuben,  the  accomplished  military  organizer  ;  Kosciusko,  with  his  genius 
and  daring  ;  and  large  numbers  of  their  followers  and  associates  were  born  under  alien 
skies  and  came  to  the  banquet  of  battle  and  of  death  because  of  their  love  for  human 
freedom.  On  every  battle-plain  of  the  Revolution,  from  Bunker  Hill  to  Yorktown,  the 
bones  of  their  countrymen  have  long  since  crumbled  to  dust,  and  at  every  subsequent 
period  of  American  history  the  foreign-born  citizen,  in  council  and  in  field,  has  been 
faithful  to  the  common  cause  for  which  his  ancestry  bled. 

There  are  nearly  10,000,000  American  citizens  and  inhabitants  now  of  foreign  birth. 
They  come  not  here  as  aliens  in  blood  with  race  prejudices  against  them.  They  are  our 
kindred  ;  their  blood  and  ours  commingle.  We  are  of  a  common  parent  stock.  Shall 
they  be  denied  the  protection  of  those  institutions  which  they  helped  to  purchase  at  so 
dear  a  cost,  and  which  they  have  clone  so  much  to  uphold  and  honor  ?  Sir,  there  are 
now  five  Senators  on  this  floor  who  were  born  subjects  of  Great  Britain — three  in  Ireland, 
one  in  Scotland,  and  one  in  England.  Shall  they  fall  under  the  law  of  suspicion  if  they 
should  revisit  their  native  homes,  be  arrested  at  the  pleasure  of  the  British  Government, 
cast  into  dungeons  without  sworn  charge,  and  held  there  indefinitely  without  trial? 
They  are  as  liable  to  such  a  fate  as  Daniel  McSweeney  or  any  other  naturalized  citizen, 
and  under  the  servile  policy  of  the  Department  of  State  and  Mr.  Lowell,  they  would 
remain  in  their  cells  instead  of  returning  to  their  seats  in  this  body. 

It  has  been  announced  that  an  eminent  American  woman  contemplates  a  visit  to  her 
imprisoned  son  in  Ireland.  Mrs.  Parnell  would  doubtless  be  arrested  as  a  "suspect.1' 
There  is  a  two-fold  reason  why  the  suspicion  of  British  spies  would  haunt  her;  she  is  the 
mother  of  one  who  believes  his  people  ought  to  have  a  chance  to  own  their  own  homes,  and 
who  loves  liberty  and  justice  well  enough  to  suffer  for  them;  she  is  likewise  the  daughter 
of  Stewart  of  the  "  Ironsides,"  who  saluted  the  British  flag  on  the  high  seas  in  1812,  to 
better  purpose,  and  with  far  greater  propriety,  than  the  salute  of  October  last  at  York- 
town.  [Applause  in  the  galleries.]  I  plead  for  the  right  of  this  woman,  and  of  all 
women  and  men  of  foreign  birth,  or  with  foreign  alliances,  to  visit  their  kindred,  share  in 
their  joys  and  their  sorrows,  look  upon  the  graves  of  their  parents,  and  caress  the  loved 
ones  they  left  behind  them,  without  molestation  or  hindrance  from  any  power  whatever, 
as  long  as  they  break  no  law.  This  is  not  a  question  as  to  the  people  of  any  one  nativity; 
it  is  not  an  Irish  nor  a  German  question;  it  applies  to  all  naturalized  citizens  of  every 
clime  and  land,  and  it  affects  their  rights  and  their  safety,  on  whatever  sea  or  shore  they 
may  wander.  It  will  be  settled  at  no  distant  day  in  accordance  with  American  * 
honor.  The  people  of  the  United  States  have  too  proud  a  sense  of  justice  and  of  their 
own  strength  and  glorious  destiny  to  submit  longer  to  the  policy  of  a  party  which  per- 
mits the  American  citizen,  the  American  flag,  and  the  American  name  to  be  outraged 
with  impunity  by  foreign  nations.    [Applause  in  the  galleries.] 

Governor  Cleveland's  Sentiments. 

Vietvs  Expressed  When  Mayor  of  Buffalo  on  the  Release  of  the  Irish  Suspects, 

When  it  became  known  in  this  country  that  Mr.  Lowell  had  abandoned  the 
Americans  imprisoned  in  Ireland  without  formal  accusation,  trial  or  conviction,  the 
public  indignation  found  expression  in  mass  meetings  to  protest  against  his  course,  and 
about  the  time  that  the  controversy  culminated  such  a  meeting  was  called  in  this  city. 
It  was  held  April  9,  1882,  in  St.  James'  Hall,  and  the  Governor,  who  had  been  then  three 


PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD.  261 

months  Mayor  of  Buffalo,  presided.  On  taking  the  chair  he  delivered  the  following 
address,  which  is  certainly  as  frank  and  outspoken  in  utterance  in  regard  to  the  duties  of 
the  American  Government  to  its  citizens  abroad  as  any  one  need  ask  for  : 

"  Fellow  Citizens — This  is  the  formal  mode  of  address  on  occasions  of  this  kind, 
but  I  think  we  seldom  realize  fully  its  meaning  or  how  valuable  a  thing  it  is  to  be  a 
citizen.  From  the  earliest  civilization  to  be  a  citizen  has  been  to  be  a  free  man,  endowed 
with  certain  privileges  and  advantages,  and  entitled  to  the  full  protection  of  the  State. 
The  defense  and  protection  of  personal  rights  of  its  citizens  has  always  been  the  para- 
mount and  most  important  duty  of  a  free,  enlightened  government.  And  perhaps  no 
government  has  this  sacred  trust  more  in  its  keeping  than  this,  the  best  and  freest  of  them 
all  ;  for  here  the  people  who  are  to  be  protected  are  the  source  of  those  powers,  which 
they  delegate  upon  the  express  compact  that  the  citizen  shall  be  protected.  For  this 
purpose  we  choose  those  who  for  the  time  being  shall  manage  the  machinery  which  we 
have  set  up  for  our  defense  and  safety. 

"  And  this  protection  adheres  to  us  in  all  lands  and  places  as  an  incident  of  citizen- 
ship. Let  but  the  weight  of  a  sacrilegious  hand  be  put  upon  this  sacred  thing,  and  a 
great  strong  government  springs  to  its  feet  to  avenge  the  wrong.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
native-born  American  citizen  enjoys  his  birthright.  But  when,  in  the  westward  march  of 
empire,  this  nation  was  founded  and  took  root,  we  beckoned  to  the  Old  World  and 
invited  hither  its  immigration  and  provided  a  mode  by  which  those  who  sought  a  home 
among  us  might  become  our  fellow  citizens.  They  came  by  thousands  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  ;  they  came  and 

'  Hewed  the  dark  old  woods  away, 
And  gave  the  virgin  fields  to-day  ; ' 

they  came  with  strong  sinews  and  brawny  arms  to  aid  in  the  growth  and  progress  of  a 
new  country  ;  they  came  to  our  temples  of  justice  and  under  the  solemnity  of  an  oath 
renounced  all  allegiance  to  every  other  State,  potentate  and  sovereignty,  and  surrendered 
to  us  all  the  duty  pertaining  to  such  allegiance.  We  have  accepted  their  fealty  and 
invited  them  to  surrender  the  protection  of  their  native  land. 

"And  what  should  be  given  them  in  return?  Manifestly,  good  faith  and  every  dic- 
tate of  honor  demands  that  we  give  them  the  same  liberty  and  protection  here  and  else- 
where which  we  vouchsafe  to  our  native-born  citizens.  And  that  this  has  been  accorded  to 
them  is  the  crowning  glory  of  American  institutions.  It  needed  not  the  statute  which  is 
now  the  law  of  the  land,  declaring  that  all  naturalized  citizens,  while  in  foreign  lands, 
are  entitled  to  and  shall  receive  from  this  government  the  same  protection'  of  person  and 
property  which  is  accorded  to  native-born  citizens,  to  voice  the  policy  of  our  nation. 

"In  all  lands  where  the  semblance  of  liberty  is  preserved,  the  right  of  a  person 
arrested  to  a  speedy  accusation  and  trial  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  fundamental  law  as  it  is  a 
rule  of  civilization.  At  any  rate,  we  hold  it  to  be  so,  and  this  is  one  of  the  rights  which 
we  undertake  to  guarantee  to  any  native  born  or  naturalized  citizen  of  ours,  whether  he 
be  imprisoned  by  order  of  the  Czar  of  Russia  or  under  the  pretext  of  a  law  administered 
for  the  benefit  of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  England.  We  do  not  claim  to  make  laws 
for  other  countries,  but  we  do  insist  that  whatsoever  those  laws  may  be  they  shall,  in 
the  interests  of  human  freedom  and  the  rights  of  mankind,  so  far  as  they  involve  the 
liberty  of  our  citizens,  be  speedily  administered.  We  have  a  right  to  say  and  do  say  that 
mere  suspicion  without  examination  on  trial  is  not  sufficient  to  justify  the  long  imprison- 
ment of  a  citizen  of  America.  Other  nations  may  permit  their  citizens  to  be  thus 
imprisoned.     Ours  will  not.      And  this  in  effect  has  been  solemnly  declared  by  statute. 

"We  have  met  here  to-night  to  consider  this  subject  and  inquire  into  the  cause  and 
the  reasons  and  the  justice  of  the  imprisonment  of  certain  of  our  fellow-citizens  now  held 
m  British  prisons  without  the  semblance  of  a  trial  or  legal  examination.  Our  law  declares 
that  the  Government  shall  act  in  such  cases.  But  the  people  are  the  creators  of  the 
Government.  The  undaunted  apostle  of  the  Christian  religion,  imprisoned  and  prose- 
cuted, appealing  centuries  ago  to  the  Roman  law  and  rights  of  Roman  citizenship, 
boldly  demanded  ;  '  Is  it  lawful  for  you  to  scourge  a  man  that  is  a  Roman  and  uncon- 
demned?'  So,  too,  might  we  ask,  appealing  to  the  law  of  our  land  and  the  laws  of 
civilization:  'Is  it  lawful  that  these,  our  fellows,  be  imprisoned,  who  are  American 
citizens  and  uncondemned  ?  '  I  deem  it  an  honor  to  be  called  upon  to  preside  at  such  a 
meeting,  and  I  thank  you  for  it.     What  is  your  further  pleasure  ?  " 

In  further  illustration  of  the  protection  Americans  abroad  may  expect  from 

Governor  Cleveland,  we  reproduce  the  following  from  a  recent  letter  to  the  New 

York  Herald  by  Wm.  H.   Hurlbert,  who  has  recently  given  the   subject  very 

thorough  examination.     He  says  : 

It  is  of  good  omen  for  the  Democratic  party  that  it  invites  the  country  to  put  the 
control  of  this  great  issue  into  the  hands  of  a  President  trained  as  Governor  Cleveland 


262  PROTECTION    OF   AMERICAN   CITIZENS   ABROAD. 

has  been  in  that  great  school  of  executive  responsibility  from  which  the  ablest  managers 
of  the  State  Department, without  distinction  of"  party,  have  been  graduated  from  the  days 
of  ex-Governor  Marcy  down  to  the  present  time. 

There  are  two  great  Declarations  of  Independence  in  our  American  history. 

On  the  4th  of  )uly,  1776,  Thomas  Jefferson  drew  up  for  the  British  colonies  in 
America  the  declaration  of  their  right,  as  organized  communities,  to  decide  for  themselves 
the  political  conditions  under  which  they  would  exist. 

On  the  20th  of  September,  1853,  ex-Governor  Marcy,  of  New  York,  as  Secretary  of 
State  of  the  United  States,  under  a  Democratic  administration,  drew  up  and  presented  to 
the  world  another  and  a  scarcely  less  memorable  declaration. 

In  his  reply,  then  made,  to  the  demand  of  Austria  for  the  surrender  of  Martin  Koszta, 
a  born  subject  of  the  Austrian  Emperor  as  King  of  Hungary,  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
Hungarian  insurrection  under  Kossuth,  escaped  to  America  and  declared  his  intention  to 
become  an  American  citizen,  Secretary  Marcy  once  and  once  for  all  made  an  end  of  the 
European  feudal  doctrine  of  the  indelible  allegiance  of  the  individual  as  impressed  on  him 
at  his  birth. 

This  was  the  Democratic  doctrine  of  ex-Governor  Marcy.  This,  we  may  be  sure,  will 
be  the  Democratic  doctrine  of  President  Cleveland.  Great  Britain,  after  an  obstinate 
resistance  of  sixty  years,  found  herself  compelled  in  187 1,  by  the  able  diplomacy  of 
another  ex-Governor  of  New  York,  Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  formally  to  acquiesce  in  this 
Democratic  doctrine. 


OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 


263 


Our  Foreign  Policy. 


Importance  of  the  Subject. 

New  foreign  markets  for  our  surplus  products  and  manufactures  is  one  of  the 
most  pressing  demands  of  the  day.  The  American  people  think  that  a  century  is 
enough  for  the  adjustment  of  sectional  rivalries,  and  that  the  time  has  now  arrived 
when  the  public  mind  must  not  be  limited  to  the  consideration  of  home  affairs. 
They  believe  that  2,000,000,000  consumers  in  the  markets  of  the  whole  world 
will  do  more  to  relieve  the  farmer,  the  laborer,  and  the  manufacturer  than  a  lim- 
ited home  market  of  but  55,000,000  consumers. 

An  examination  of  our  trade  statistics  shows  the  following  remarkable,  and  we 
might  say,  startling  and  disgraceful  facts,  viz  : 

But  two  per  cent,  of  our  annual  manufactures  are  sold  abroad,  notwithstanding 
there  are  fifteen  sister  Republics  south  of  us  on  the  American  Continent,  exceed- 
ingly deficient  in  and  in  need  of  manufactured  articles  of  nearly  every  description . 

About  eighty  per  cent,  of  our  exports  are,  on  an  average,  the  products  of 
agriculture. 

Spanish-American  Commerce. 

Of  our  total  annual  exports,  eighty  per  cent,  goto  Europe,  and  less  than  jive  per 
cent,  to  the  fifteen  Spanish- American  Republics. 

We  allow  the  trade  of  those  Republics  to  be  monopolized  by  England,  France, 
Germany  and  other  European  powers. 

Recognizing  the  transcendent  importance  of  a  change  in  this  respect,  the 
Democratic  Party  has  incorporated  in  its  National  platform,  the  following  resolu- 
tion : 

' '  We  favor  an  American  continental  policy,  based  upon  more  intimate  com- 
mercial and  political  relations  with  the  fifteen  sister  Republics  of  North,  Central 
and  South  America,  but  entangling  alliances  with  none." 

The  total  annual  imports  of  these  Spanish- American  Republics,  and  our  share 
therein  are,  as  stated  in  the  last  annual  report  of  the  State  Department,  as  follows, 
in  value  : 


s 

Imports  from 
all  Countries. 

Imports  from 
United  States. 

Mexico 

$35,000,000 

10,100,000 

147,067,000 

$13,000,000 

The  five  Central  American  Republics. . . . 

1,626,000 
14,500,000 

Total 

$192,167,000 

$29,126,000 

Our  share  therein  15  per  cent. 


264  OUR    FOREIGN   POLICY. 

Their  total  annual  exports,  and  our  share  therein,  are  in  value  as  follows : 


Mexico 

The  five  Central  American  Republics 
The  nine  South  American  Republics. 

Total 


Exports  to  all 
Countries. 


$20,000,000 

14,328,000 

201,579,000 


$235,907,000 


Exports  to  the 
United  States. 


$8,317,000 

2,905,000 

23,288,000 


$34,510,000 


Our  share  therein  14  per  cent. 

It  will  be  observed  from  the  above  statistics  that  we  supply  less  than  one-sixth 
part  of  their  demand,  and  buy  from  them  but  about  one-seventh  part  of  their 
surplus  supply. 

The  present  commerce  of  these  countries  is,  however,  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket 
compared  with  the  enormous  proportions  it  is  bound  to  assume  in  the  immediate 
future,  owing  to  the  tidal-wave  of  material  development  and  progress  which  has 
already  extended  as  far  south  as  the  City  of  Mexico  and  is  destined  to  continue 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  fourteen  other  Republics  beyond  We, 
as  a  nation,  cannot  afford  to  sit  still  and  see  our  European  rivals  reap  the  benefits 
of  the  coming  commercial  harvest. 

The  great  value  and  importance  of  the  Spanish-American  trade  is  owing  to  the 
fact  that  those  countries  are  in  climate,  resources,  products,  supply  and  demand, 
the  reverse  and  complement  of  the  United  States.  Commercial  exchanges  based 
upon  such  conditions  are,  therefore,  most  valuable,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
fundamental  laws  of  trade  and  political  economy. 

If  we  are  ever  to  have  new  foreign  outlets  for  our  surplus  manufactures  they 
can  best  be  found  in  these  fifteen  sister  republics — countries  in  great  need  of  rail- 
way iron  and  supplies,  farming  implements,  wagons  and  carriages,  cotton  and 
woolen  goods,  boots  and  shoes,  telegraph  and  telephone  supplies,  sewing  machines, 
and  the  various  other  manufactures  which  we  have  to  sell.  As  Senator  Maxey  of 
Texas,  well  said,  in  a  recent  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate,  in  support  of  the 
bill  to  aid  the  World's  Industrial  Exposition  at  New  Orleans  :  "  The  importance 
of  securing  the  trade  of  Mexico  and  Central  and  South  America  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. We  must  have  an  outlet  for  our  surplus  manufactured  productions,  or 
the  shutting  down  of  mills,  the  placement  of  workmen  on  half  time,  the  reduction 
of  wages,  and  strikes  will  inevitably  follow.  We  cannot  hope  for  an  extensive 
market  for  our  manufactured  products  in  Europe,  The  most  inviting  field  is  the 
country  south  of  us." 

But  we  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  asserting  that  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
Democratic  party  will  be  limited  to  Spanish- America  for  its  doctrine  of  "peace, 
commerce,  and  honest  friendship  with  all  nations— entangling  alliances  witli 
none,"  is  broad  enough  to  include  the  whole  world. 

We  have  selected  these  countries  because  they  are  to-day  the  most  important, 
and  because  they  best  illustrate  the  dangerous  policy  which  Mr.  Blaine  inaugurated 
while  Secretary  of  State. 


OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY.  265 

Dangerous  Policy  of  Republican  Party. 

The  nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine  as  the  standard-bearer  of  the  Republican  party, 
drew  forth  from  the  Press  the  following  significant  comments  : 

Those  of  the  Boston  Herald  are  of  peculiar  interest,  for  the  reason  that  it  is 
published  in  a  city  which  has  taken  the  lead  in  the  railway  development  of  Mexico. 
It  says,  editorially,  June  27,  as  follows  : 

The  criticism  we  make  of  Mr.  Blaine's  foreign  policy  is,  that  it  was  not  well  cal- 
culated to  commend  us  to  the  South  American  countries,  or  to  secure  an  increase  of  our 
trade  with  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  our  unwise  interference  between  Chili  and  Peru,  as 
the  sponsors  of  an  absurd  guano  claim,  secured  for  us  the  ill-will  of  both  of  those  coun- 
tries. 

Mr.  Blaine's  policy  did  not  seek  peace  and  trade,  or  he  did  not  know  how  to  go  to 
work  to  secure  them.  The  conference  of  American  republics  was  to  be  held  in  obedience 
to  a  call  which  excluded  the  consideration  of  commercial  treaties. 

What  we  need — what  would  tend  to  increase  our  trade  with  the  countries  of  South 
America: — is  a  comprehensive  policy  of  quite  another  character  from  that  of  "jingo"  and 
guano.  We  need  commercial  treaties  with  those  countries.  Especially  we  need  to  be 
represented  in  them  by  able,  honest  men,  who  know  something  about  commerce,  instead 
of  broken-down  party  backs  and  "bummers,"  like  Kilpatrick  and  Hurlbert,  sent  out  by 
Mr.  Blaine,  and  nearly  all  the  official  representatives  of  the  United  States  in  South  Ame- 
rica for  fifty  years. 

The  trade  of  South  America  is  not  to  be  secured  by  patronage  and  taffy,  but  by  hon- 
est dealing  and  respectful  treatment.  The  leading  men  of  the  South  American  states  are 
alienated  by  the  condescension  of  American  politician-statesmen.  It  is  their  great  griev- 
ance in  dealing  with  this  country,  and  they  will  never  enter  a  conference,  the  apparent 
object  of  which  is  merely  to  glorify  the  United  States. 

Finally,  there  is  no  need  of  a  conference,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it 
would  lead  to  any  important  result.  We  need  new  commercial  treaties  and  steamship 
lines,  for  the  encouragement  of  which  we  are  in  favor  of  the  most  liberal  policy. 

In  another  editorial  July  17th,  the  Herald,  says: 

It  may  be  said  that  Mr.  Blaine,  in  spite  of  his  desire  to  inaugurate  a  brilliant  policy, 
and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  no  national  policy  is  so  brilliant  as  a  war  policy,  would  have 
the  coolness  and  determination  to  resist  temptation,  and  would  neither  seize  on  the 
Panama  canal  nor  abrogate  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  if  he  thought  that  the  peace  of 
the  nation  would  thereby  be  jeopardized.  We  place  very  little  confidence  in  arguments 
of  this  kind,  for  the  good  and  sufficient  reason  that,  if  Mr.  Blane  is  elected  President,  the 
men  to  whom  he  owes  his  nomination,  and  to  whom  he  will  owe  election,  will  also  dic- 
tate to  him  the  policy  which  he  is  to  pursue.  He  has  been  nominated  because  he  is 
thought  to  be  intensely  and  aggressively  American,  and,  if  he  is  elected,  he  cannot  afford 
to,  and  will  not,  disappoint  his  admirers  by  proving  to  them  that  they  have  mistaken 
their  man.  We  do  not  mean  by  this  that  the  enthusiastic  Republicans  in  the  West  would 
welcome  a  foreign  war,  but  we  do  assert  that  the  policy  of  which  they  approve  would 
almost  inevitably  lead  to  that  result,  although  at  the  present  time  we  acquit  them  of 
having  that  conclusion  in  view  in  so  strenuously  advocating  it.  In  intercourse  between 
nations,  a  government  cannot  assert  itself  in  an  aggressive  manner  unless  it  is  willing  and 
prepared  to  follow  up  its  demands  with  armed  force.  To  make  a  demand,  and  to  then 
back  down  from  it  when  resistance  is  offered,  is  one  of  the  most  humiliating  conditions 
into  which  a  nation  can  fall,  and  yet  the  so-called  American,  or  jingo,  policy,  for  the 
development  of  which  Mr.  Blaine  is  pushed  forward,  is  one  which  must  lead  us  either 
to  make  demands  and  back  them  up  with  cannon  and  bayonet,  or  submit  to  ungracious 
snubs  from  those  who  are  not  disposed  to  yield  what  they  consider  their  rights,  unless 
they  are  compelled  to  do  so  by  superior  force. 

From  the  Mississippi  Valley,  also,  which  is  so  deeply  interested  in  the  railway 
and  commercial  development  of  Mexico  and  the  other  states  of  Spanish  America, 
comes  an  earnest  protest  against  Mr.  Blaine's  foreign  policy  as  illustrated  by  his 
acts  while  Secretary  of  State.  In  a  speech,  opening  the  campaign  in  St.  Louis, 
Hon.  James  O.  Broadhead  said  : 

Taking  a  business  view  of  the  matter,  Mr.  Blaine  ought  to  be  peculiarly  objectionable 
to  the  people  of  St.  Louis  and  the  whole  Mississippi  Valley.      He  has  made  himself 


266  OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 

obnoxious  to  our  sister  republics  that  lie  south  of  us  at  a  time  when  we  are  about  to  culti- 
vate extreme  friendly  commercial  relations  with  them.  They  fear  his  election  because 
they  fear  it  will  bring  disaster  to  them,  and  they  have  in  various  ways  already  given 
expression  to  these  fears.  During  the  short  time  Mr.  Blaine  was  Secretary  of  State 
under  Garfield,  he  alienated  the  good  will  of  Mexico  and  one  of  the  South  American 
republics  by  his  course  toward  them  as  Secretary  of  State.  He  attempted  to  interfere  in 
the  difficulties  between  Chili  and  Peru  *****  an(j  nearly  succeeded  in  goad- 
ing the  republic  of  Chili  into  a  declaration  of  hostilities  toward  us. 

It  is  our  interest,  not  only  the  interest  of  St.  Louis  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  but  of 
the  whole  country,  to  secure  the  commerce  of  these  sister  republics.  The  imports  of 
these  countries  amount  annually  to  nearly  $500,000,000.  We  supply  only  one-sixth  of 
this  amount.  We  ought  to  supply  nearly  all  of  it.  They  need  our  manufactures — par- 
ticularly the  manufactures  of  the  Western  States.  We  need  their  raw  materials.  This 
trade  ought  to  be  secured  by  treaties  of  reciprocity,  but  the  platform  of  the  Republican 
party  asserts  that  the  duties  on  raw  materials  ought  not  to  be  abated.  Unless  they  are 
abated  we  cannot  build  up  a  profitable  export  trade  in  manufactured  articles. 

Our  true  policy  is  that  of  peace.  We  want  no  war  with  our  sister  republics.  They 
followed  our  example.  They  were  born  in  the  same  atmosphere  of  freedom  with  our- 
selves and  the  course  of  humanity  and  justice,  as  well  as  our  own  commercial  interests, 
require  us  to  keep  friendly  relations  with  them. 

Mr.  Blaine  is  not  our  candidate.  He  antagonizes  the  interests  of  the  people  of  this 
great  valley. 

Again,  in  a  letter  by  the  Hon.  James  Speed  of  Kentucky,  who  was  Attorney- 
General  in  President  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  we  find  the  following  : 

The  foreign  relations  of  this  country  are  pretty  much  in  the  hands  of  the  President. 
Luring  the  short  time  Mr.  Blaine  acted  as  Secretary  of  State  he  exhibited  such  a  view  of 
international  law  as  to  make  me  believe  that,  should  he  be  elected  President,  if  he  would 
not  plunge  us  into  needless  foreign  difficulties  he  would  bring  our  diplomacy  into  disrepute 
and  make  us  the  laughingstock  of  the  civilized  world.  No  personal  magnetism  or  brilliant 
sentences  can  compensate  for  such  a  blunder.  To  vote  for  him  would  be  like  voting 
against  the  peace  and  honor  of  my  country.  I  cannot  do  that  at  the  bidding  of  the 
Republican  party. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  adverse  criticisms,  from  various  parts  of  the 
United  States,  and  from  abroad  of  Mr.  Blaine's  foreign  policy  while  Secretary  of 
State.     What,  then,  are  the  acts  which  call  forth  this  condemnation. 

The   Chili-Peru   Affair. 

The  voluminous  record  of  the  troubles  between  Chili  and  Peru,  of  the  guano 
claims,  which  were  so  vigorously  prosecuted  by  Mr.  Blaine  while  Secretary  of 
State,  and  of  other  matters  in  dispute  between  those  Republics  is  too  lengthy  to 
reproduce  in  this  connection.  We  can  only  give  a  few  significant  facts  to  illus- 
trate the  ofnciousness  and  dangerous  drift  of  Mr.  Blaine's  course. 

In  February,  1882,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  : 

Whereas,  it  is  alleged  in  the  Chili-Peruvian  correspondence  recently  and  officially 
published,  upon  the  call  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  that  one  or  more  ministers 
plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  were  either  personally  interested  or  improperly  con- 
nected with  business  transactions  in  which  the  intervention  of  this  Government  was 
requested  or  expected  ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  further  alleged  that  certain  papers  in  relation  to  the  same  subjects 
have  been  improperly  lost  or  removed  from  the  files  of  the  State  Department :  There- 
fore, 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  be,  and  they  are  hereby,  instructed 
to  inquire  into  the  said  allegations,  and  ascertain  the  facts  relating  thereto,  and  report 
the  same,  with  such  recommendations  as  they  may  think  proper,  and  they  shall  have 
power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers. 

In  March,  1882,  the  following  further  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  House  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  be  directed  to  demand  from 
Jacob  R.   Shipherd  of  New  York,  copies  of  all  correspondence  between  himself  and 


OUR   FOREIGN   POLICY.  267 

any  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  and  all  papers  and  other  evidence  in  his  possession 
tending  to  show  what  said  Shipherd  did  or  attempted  to  do  to  enforce  the  claim  of 
the  Peruvian  Company  or  to  induce  the  United  States  to  enforce  this  claim  against 
Peru. 

Under  the  authority  of  these  resolutions  the  Committee  entered  into  an  extended 
investigation. 

The  minority  report  of  Hon.  Perry  Belmont  is  as  follows  : 

"The  undersigned  concurs  in  the  general  conclusions  of  the  foregoing  report  of  the 
committee,  excepting  so  far  as  they  are  qualified  by  his  statements  in  a  speech  delivered 
by|him  in  the  House,  July  5,  1882.  He  also  submits  the  following  statement  in  regard 
tojhe  Landreau  claims  : 

"The  claim  is  for  services  alleged  to  have  been  rendered  by  Theophile  Landreau,  a 
Frenchman,  and  amounts  to  a  sum  variously  stated  from  seven  millions  three  hundred 
thousand  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  Precisely  what  those 
services  were,  or  what  amount  of  time,  trouble,  and  money  were  expended  in  giving 
them,  is  not  shown.  The  claimant  and  his  friends  confine  themselves  to  vague  and 
general  allegations  that  they  were  very  costly  to  him  and  important  to  the  Government 
of  Peru.  They  consisted  in  searching  for  deposits  of  guano.  He  did  not  begin  this 
search  nor  prosecute  it  at  the  special  request  of  the  Peruvian  Government,  nor  in  pur- 
suance of  any  contract  or  employment.  He  alleges  that  he  undertook  it  because  he  was 
attracted  by  certain  decrees  and  proclamations  offering  a  reward  of  thirty-three  per  cent, 
for  discovering  property  previously  unknown  and  belonging  to  the  government.  He  pro- 
fessed to  believe  and  to  have  the  private  opinion  of  some  distinguished  Peruvian,  whom 
he  did  not  name,  that  he  could,  under  these  decrees  and  proclamations,  entitle  himself 
to  the  reward  of  thirty-three  per  cent,  if  he  ascertained  that  any  particular  part  of  the 
public  land  contained  guano.  This  was  not  a  true  construction  of  the  decree,  and  he  was 
probably  conscious  of  it.  He  conducted  his  searches  clandestinely,  and  whatever  dis- 
coveries he  made  he  kept  to  himself.  Having  made  a  "  list"  of  the  lands  on  which  he 
said  that  he  had  found  guano,  and  sealed  it  up,  he  offered  to  sell  his  secret  to  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  bought,  or  at  least  a  bargain  was  made  for  it,  upon  terms  which  would 
give  the  claimant  an  enormous  fortune  if  his  list  was  a  true  one.  He  alleges  that  the 
property  on  which  he  had  found  guano  was  worth  four  hundred  millions.  The  govern- 
ment refused  to  pay  on  the  basis  of  this  list  until  it  was  verified  by  an  examination  of  the 
lands,  and  declared  that  Landreau's  demand  was  so  large  that  it  could  never  be  paid  ; 
but  they  were  willing  to  pay  him  what  he  might  reasonably  deserve  to  have.  They 
insisted,  however,  that  they  must  be  allowed  time  to  examine  the  whole  subject,  with  a 
view  to  the  making  of  a  new  contract.  This  proposition  was  resented  as  a  denial  of 
justice.  Much  dispute  followed,  and  a  solemn  declaration  was  made  by  the  executive 
branch  of  the  government  that  the  contract  was  void.  It  does  not  appear  that  there  was 
any  absolute  refusal  to  pay  for  the  services  which  Landreau  rendered,  but  the  parties  did 
not  agree  on  the  terms  of  a  new  bargain. 

"  This  action  of  Peru  gave  rise  to  much  harsh  denunciation.  Landreau  and  his 
supporters  in  that  country  and  elsewhere  loudly  asserted  that  the  government  had 
contracted  the  guilt  and  infamy  of  a  repudiating  State.  To  the  undersigned  it  does  not 
appear  so.    What  they  refused  to  pay  was  not  an  ascertained  and  honest  debt. 

"The  fact  that  Landreau  thrust  his  services  upon  the  Peruvian  government  ;  that  he 
gave  the  public  authorities  no  notice  of  his  intentions  ;  that  he  made  no  report  to  them 
of  his  progress  ;  that  when  the  bargain  was  made  the  government  was  utterly  ignorant  of 
the  subject  matter  it  embraced  ;  that  the  officers  consenting  to  it  had  no  means  of 
knowing  what  Landreau  would  claim  under  it  except  by  reference  to  papers  which  were 
then  close  under  seal  and  which  Landreau  would  not  permit  them  to  open — these  facts 
show  it  to  have  been  at  best  a  catching  bargain,  not  sanctioned  by  any  principle  of 
public  law  or  commercial  morality.  But,  apart  from  all  this,  the  enormous  disparity 
between  the  services  rendered  and  the  compensation  claimed  for  them  under  the  contract 
is,  per  se  evidence  of  fraud  so  string  that  no  chancellor  in  the  world  would  enforce  it  in  a 
suit  between  private  parties.  The  proper  authorities  were,  therefore,  perfectly  justified 
in  pronouncing  the  contract  void. 

"This  decision  upon  the  contract  was  made  by  the  executive  branch  of  the  Peruvian 
Government  ;  the  legislature,  being  appealed  to,  refused  to  say  it  was  wrong  ;  and  when 
the  judicial  courts  were  called  upon  by  the  claimant  to  enforce  the  contract  they 
decided  that  they  had  no  jurisdiction  of  such  a  cause.  Undoubtedly  the  courts 
were  right.  No  law  of  Peru  gave  the  judiciary  power  to  cite  the  Executive  before  it  and 
rejudge  its  decision  in  such  a  case.  In  that  country,  as  in  this  and  every  other,  the 
decision  of  the  Executive  is  final  in  matters  of  contract  between   the   sovereign  and  an 


268  OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 

individual,  except  where  some  special  provision  submits  it  to  the  cognizance  of  a  judicial 
tribunal. 

"The  claimant  got  a  decision  from  the  Executive.  It  was  a  right  and  true  determin- 
ation of  the  cause,  and  he  falsely  complained  that  justice  was  denied  him.  Justice  was  not 
denied  him  ;  it  was  given  him  by  the  only  organ  of  the  government  which  had 
jurisdiction  of  the  parties  or  the  subject-matter  in  controversy. 

"After  the  decision  of  the  Executive  against  him  and  the  refusal  of  the  legislature  to 
interfere,  and  his  failure  in  the  courts,  he  applied  to  his  own  government — that  of  France 
■ — to  aid  him  in  getting  his  claim  acknowledged  and  paid.  But  here  he  was  met  by  his 
own  express  agreement  that  he  should  forfeit  his  claim  if  he  proceeded  or  attempted  to 
piocure  the  diplomatic  intervention  of  any  foreign  government  in  its  favor.  It  will  not 
be  denied  that  this  was  a  perfectly  lawful  provision,  which  could  not  be  violated  without 
incurring  the  stipulated  penalty.  It  was  a  dependent  covenant,  and  therefore  an  essential 
part  of  the  contract.  It  was  wise,  necessary,  and  just  to  insert  it.  Peru  was  willing  to 
make  contracts  with  foreigners  who  would  consent  to  put  themselves  on  a  level  with  her 
own  citizens,  but  she  would  not  embroil  herself  with  forergn  governments  about  the 
execution  of  contracts  which  concerned  her .  own  domestic  affairs  exclusively.  The 
conclusion  from  this  is  that  Landreau  forfeited  and  completely  lost  whatever  rights  he 
might  previously  have  had  under  the  contract  when  he  violated  it  by  seeking  the  aid  of 
France.  But  the  government  of  France  refused  to  interfere,  either  because  its  authorities 
saw  that  intervention  would  be  ipso  facto  the  legal  destruction  of  the  claim,  or  else  because 
it  was,  in  their  opinion,  originally  dishonest  and  unjust.  Yet  Landreau  pressed  it  upon 
them  so  persistently  that  it  became  necessary  for  the  foreign  office  to  instruct  its  diplomatic 
agents  in  Peru  to  have  no  communication  with  him. 

"  Being  thus  silenced  by  the  adverse  judgment  of  both  Peru  and  France,  the  device  was 
adopted  of  getting  American  influence  to  carry  it.  It  might  be  supposed  that  the  United 
States  would  be  very  slow  to  give  its  protection  to  a  French  claim  of  such  character  and 
Avith  such  a  history.      The  pretenses  upon  which  this  was  effected  were  very  shallow. 

"It  seems  that  John  C.  Landreau,  a  younger  brother  of  J.  Theophile  Landreau,  had 
come  to  America  when  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  was  living  in  Louisiana.  Our 
authorities  believed  him  to  have  become  an  American  citizen,  but  that  fact  is  doubtful  ; 
for  though  he  had  a  certificate  of  naturalization  and  was  appointed  fo  a  consulate  in  the 
West  Indies,  which  a  foreigner  could  not  hold,  the  records  of  the  court  in  which  he  was 
said  to  have  been  naturalized  contain  no  trace  of  such  an  act.  However  that  may  be, 
John  C.  Landreau  was  alleged,  both  by  himself  and  his  brother,  to  have  an  interest  in  the 
claim  which  made  it  the  duty  of  the  American  Government  to  prosecute  it. 

"  What  connection  had  John  C.  Landreau  with  the  claim  of  Theophile?  None 
whatever  that  could  justify  or  even  excuse  us  for  intervening.  Certain  letters  between 
the  brothers  are  produced  which,  if  authentic  and  written  at  the  time  of  their  date  shows 
that  Theophile  told  John  while  he  was  prosecuting  his  searches  for  guano,  what  he  was 
engaged  in  and  how  largely  he  hoped  to  profit  by  it.  "For  my  part,"  he  adds,  "I  take 
you  for  my  partner  and  wait  with  anxiety  for  the  five  thousand  dollars  you  promised  to 
send  me.  "  Subsequently  he  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  six  thousand  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  previously  promised.  On  what  account  this  remittance  was  made  is  not 
shown,  but  it  was  manifestly  not  a  contribution  of  John  to  the  capital  of  any  partnership 
in  Theophile's  Peruvian  adventure.  There  was  never  any  agreement  between  them 
which  bound  John  to  share  losses,  or  which  entitled  him  to  profits.  Theophile  prosecuted 
the  business  alone  ;  there  was  no  privity  of  contract  between  John  and  Peru  ;  John  was 
wholly  unknown  to  that  government,  and  his  name  was  never  mentioned  in  any  of  its 
dealings  with  Theophile. 

"  If  we  assume  that  John  was  an  American  citizen  and  that  he  had  a  secret  interest  in 
Theophile's  contract  by  virtue  of  some  unknown  arrangement  between  themselves,  is  it 
not  still  preposterous  to  say  that  these  facts  would  metamorphose  the  Frenchman's  case 
into  an  American  claim  ?  At  the  beginning  it  was  a  French  claim,  if  anything.  France 
pronounced  it  unworthy  of  support.  Did  the  claimant  change  his  civic  relations  or  the 
nationality  of  his  demand  by  simply  revealing  the  fact  that  a  naturalized  citizen  of  the 
United  States  had  a  secret  interest  in  the  success  of  the  speculation? 

"But  notwithstanding  the  obvious  impropriety  of  our  intermeddling  with  this  bad  claim 
of  a  French  adventurer,  its  supporters  were  ingenious  enough  to  convince  the  State 
Department  that  we  ought  to  do  so.  Mr.  Fish,  who  at  first  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it,  was  induced  to  say  at  a  later  period  that  it  appeared  to  deserve  examination  ;  the 
officer  whose  duty  it  was  to  report  upon  its  merits  expressed  an  opinion  strongly  in  its 
favor  ;  a  committee  of  this  House  went  the  length  of  instructing  the  President  to  prosecute 
it,  by  a  joint  resolution,  which,  however,  failed  to  pass  the  Senate.  Mr.  Blaine,  regard- 
ing the  judgment  of  his  predecessors  as  conclusively  binding  on  him,  and  believing  he 


OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY.  2G9 

could  not  go  behind  what  he  called  the  adjudication  of  this  House,  went  in  fact  a  long 
step  beyond  that. 

"In  all  the  discussions  of  the  subject,  American  officers  conducting  them  have  ignored 
the  fraudulent  character  of  the  original  contract  ;  the  manifest  justice  of  the  decision 
made  against  it  by  the  executive  branch  of  the  Peruvian  government  ;  the  finality  of  that 
decision  under  the  laws  of  Peru  ;  the  absolute  renunciation  expressed  in  the  contract 
itself  of  all  right  to  call  in  the  aid  of  any  foreign  government  ;  the  refusal  of  the  claim- 
ant's own  government  to  support  him  in  his  demands  ,  the  absurdity  of  calling  this  an 
American  claim  merely  because  an  American  citizen  was  supposed  to  have  a  secret 
interest,,  not  in  the  claim  itself,  but  in  the  successful  prosecution  of  it  by  a  foreigner,  and 
the  total  absence  of  all  proof  to  show  the  existence  even  of  that  indirect  interest.  Over- 
looking these  facts,  and  listening  only  to  accusations  against  Peru,  as  false  as  they  were 
vague,  the  authorities  of  this  government  became  worked  up  to  the  point  of  asserting  in 
solemn  diplomatic  form  that  Peru  was  bound  in  duty  and  honor  either  "to  supply  an 
impartial  tribunal,  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  present  courts,  or  else  submit  the  case  of 
Landreau  to  arbitration."  Peru  was  addressed  in  this  decisive  style  upon  the  subject  of 
Theophile  Landreau's  false  claim,  alter  it  was  adjudicated  against  him  by  the  only 
Peruvian  tribunal  which  had  any  right  to  decide  it,  and  after  the  government  of  France 
had  resolutely  and  most  emphatically  refused  to  give  it  the  slightest  countenance.  In  the 
same  dispatch  the  Secretary  of  State  instructs  the  Minister  at  Lima  not  only  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  Peruvian  government  to  "this  injustice,"  but  directs  the  Minister  to  say 
"  that  the  United  States  will  expect  some  adequate  and  proper  means  to  be  provided  by 
which  Landreau  can  obtain  a  judicial  decision  upon  his  rights."  The  minister  is  further 
instructed  as  follows  :  "  As  it  may  be  presumed  that  you  will  be  fully  informed  as  to  the 
progress  of  negotiations  between  Chili  and  Peru  for  a  treaty  of  peace,  you  will  make 
such  efforts  as  you  judiciously  can  to  secure  for  Landreau  a  fair  settlement  of  his  claim." 

"  But  this  is  not  all.  Anticipating  that  in  a  treaty  of  peace  between  Chili  and  Peru  the 
latter  might  be  compelled  to  surrender  a  portion  of  her  territory,  including  possibly  the 
guano  deposits  of  which  Landreau  claimed  to  be  the  discoverer,  he  declared  that  the 
treaty  should  stipulate  "for  the  preservation  and  payment  to  Landreau  of  the  amount 
due  under  the  contract." 

"The  Secretary,  speaking  for  and  in  the  name  of  the  President,  goes  further.  He 
declares  that  if  a  transfer  of  territory  be  made  to  Chili  it  shall  be  understood  that 
Landreau's  claim  must  be  treated  as  a  prior  lien,  and  that  Chili  accepts  the  cession  with 
that  condition  annexed.  We  do  not  suppose  that  the  word  lien  is  used  here  in  its  proper 
legal  sense.  The  author  of  the  dispatch  meant  to  say  that  Chili  must  be  made  to  take 
an  estate  in  the  territory  subject  to  a  paramount  title  in  Landreau  for  such  part  as  his 
claim  covered  ;  that  the  treaty  must  recognize  Landreau's  rights  as  being  superior  to 
those  of  the  high  contracting  parties  and  prior  to  all  others  ;  and  that  Chili  must  not 
satisfy  her  own  claim  for  expenses  of  the  war  without  first  indemnifying  Landreau  for 
the  failure  of  his  speculation  upon  Peru. 

"This  was  certainly  taking  very  high  ground,  and  the  Secretary  of  State  expresses  the 
determination  of  this  government  to  hold  it  firmly  ;  for  he  instructs  the  minister  in  con- 
clusion :  "You  will  take  especial  care  to  notify  both  the  Chilian  and  Peruvian  authorities 
of  the  character  and  status  of  the  claim,  in  order  that  no  definitive  treaty  of  peace  shall  be 
made  in  disregard  of  the  rights  which  Landreau  may  be  found  to  possess." 

"  These  acts  of  the  State  Department  and  of  the  minister  are  said  in  some  quarters  to 
be  unofficial.  When  a  minister  plenipotentiary,  in  pursuance  of  express  instructions  from 
the  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  comes  between  the  authorities  of  two  belligerent 
nations  negotiating  for  peace  with  a  notification  addressed  to  both  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  preventing  a  treaty  to  which  otherwise  they  might  consent,  it  is  impossible  to 
say  that  the  proceeding  is  unofficial.  If  the  minister  had  violated  his  instructions  by 
neglecting  or  refusing  to  give  the  notification,  would  he  not  have  been  justly  chargeable 
with  a  breach  of  his  official  duty  ? 

"In  the  case  of  a  contract  between  a  citizen  of  one  country  and  the  sovereign  of 
another,  the  government  of  the  private  party  has  no  right  to  do  more  than  communicate 
the  facts  and  express  its  opinion  upon  their  effect.  This  is  the  exercise  of  good  offices. 
Did  we  confine  ourselves  to  good  offices  when  we  threw  Landreau's  claim  between  Peru 
and  her  victorious  enemy,  "so  that  no  definitive  treaty  of  peace  should  be  made"  with- 
out a  provision  for  its  ultimate  satisfaction  ?  Peru  was  engaged  in  a  disastrous  war,  and 
we  notified  her  that  she  should  make  no  peace  without  settling  Landreau's  claim. 
Would  we  have  proposed  terms  more  harsh  than  these  if  we  had  threatened  her  with  a 
war  of  our  own  ?  These  were  not  good  offices,  not  the  impartial  advice  of  a  friendly 
mediator,  but  the  urgency  of  a  power  intent  upon  forcing  from  her  distress  what  her 
sense  of  justice  had  denied. 


270  OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 

; '  Chili  was  as  much  averse  to  this  proposed  American  basis  of  a  treaty  as  Peru. 
Neither  of  them  was  willing  to  have  anything  to  do  with  Landreau  or  his  exploded  fraud. 
It  could  not  be  expected  that  the  successful  belligerent  would  share  the  fruits  of  victory 
with  him,  nor  would  the  conquered  country  voluntarily  diminish  its  means  of  buying  off 
the  invaders  of  its  soil.  It  was  perfectly  natural,  therefore,  th^t  both  parties  to  the'war 
should  reject  the  proposition  with  indignation. 

"  The  dispatches  of  August  4  and  December  16,  1881,  say,  in  words  too  plain  to  be 
misunderstood,  that  no  treaty  could  or  should  be  made  with  the  approbation  of  the 
United  States  unless  it  contained  a  stipulation  in  favor  of  Landreau.  The  words  admit 
of  no  other  construction.  In  the  dispatch  of  August  4  the  belligerents  are  to  be  notified 
that  no  definitive  treaty  shall  be  made  in  disregard  of  Landreau's  rights.  Did  these 
words  signify  nothing ?  It  they  had  a  meaning,  what  was  it?  It  is  not  possible  to 
understand  them  except  as  an  expression  of  our  determination  to  look  with  extreme  dis- 
favor upon  any  ajdustment  of  the  troubles  between  Peru  and  Chili  which  would  not  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  Landreau.  It  was  a  palpable  effort  to  make  Landreau  a  party  to 
the  treaty.  Whatever  concessions  might  be  made  by  one  of  the  belligerents  to  the  other, 
our  influence  was  to  be  used  that  both  would  yield  to  Landreau. 

"  The  disgrace  brought  upon  our  government  by  producing  this  unjust  demand  at  such 
a  juncture  of  affairs  was  wholly  without  a  shadow  of  excuse,  even  if  the  claimant  had 
been  entitled  to  our  protection.  But  he  was  a  French  citizen,  for  whose  fortunes,  good 
or  bad,  we  were  in  no  way  responsible. 

"We  volunteered  to  take  up  the  case  of  this  extravagant  stranger  after  his  own  govern  - 
ment  had  cast  it  off.  The  Secretary  did  not  see  this  important  point  correctly — most 
likely  did  not  advert  to  it  all — therefore  he  called  it  "  this  claim  of  an  American  citizen," 
which  is  a  very  confusing  mode  of  speech.  It  was  exclusively  the  claim  of  Theophile 
Landreau,  who  is  not,  and  does  pretend  to  be,  an  American  citizen.  If  it  be  said  that 
John  C.  Landreau  is  an  American  citizen,  the  answer  is  obvious  that  it  was  no  claim  of 
John's,  for  it  is  not  founded  on  any  contract  or  agreement  with  him,  express  or  implied, 
and  had  not  its  origin  in  any  transaction  to  which  he  was  a  party. 

"  The  United  States  had  a  deep  interest  in  bringing  about  a  peace  between  Peru  and 
Chili.  As  the  leading  power  on  this  continent,  our  government  was  naturally  looked  to 
with  the  respect  which  national  power  always  inspires,  and  it  might  easily  have  main- 
tained the  ascendency  to  which  it  was  entitled.  But  when  the  belligerents  perceived 
that,  instead  of  counseling  moderation  and  justice,  our  authorities  were  to  use  their 
influence  to  import  false  and  foreign  elements  into  the  negotiations,  all  confidence  in  our 
friendly  intervention  was  destroyed." 

We  also  invite  attention  to  the  following  extract  from  one  of  Mr.  Blaine's  letters 
to  Mr.  Hurlburt  (Aug.  4,  1881),  particularly  the  last  paragraph: 

"While  this  government  will  not,  as  at  present  informed,  undertake  to  construe  the 
contract  or  to  decide  upon  the  extent  of  the  compensation  due  Landreau,  you  are  instruc- 
ted to  call  the  attention  of  the  Peruvian  Government  to  this  injustice,  and  say  that  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  will  expect  some  adequate  and  proper  means  to  be  pro- 
vided by  which  Landreau  can  obtain  a  judicial  decision  upon  his  rights.  If  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Peruvian  courts  or  the  interpretation  of  the  law  by  Peruvian  judges  deprives 
Landreau  of  the  justice  which  the  contract  itself  guaranteed  him,  then,  in  the  opinion  of 
this  government,  Peru  is  bound  in  duty  and  in  honor  to  do  one  of  three  things,  viz  : 
Supply  an  impartial  tribunal,  extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  present  courts,  or  submit  the 
case  of  Landreau  to  arbitration.  I  desire  also  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
anticipated  treaty  which  is  to  adjust  the  relations  of  Chili  and  Peril,  the  latter  may  pos- 
sibly be  compelled  to  submit  to  the  loss  of  territory. 

' '  If  the  territory  to  be  surrendered  should  include  the  guano  deposits  which  were 
discovered  by  Landreau,  and  for  the  discovery  of  which  Peru  contracted  to  pay  him  a 
royalty  upon  the  tonnage  removed,  then  the  Peruvian  Government  should  in  the  treaty 
stipulate  with  Chili  for  the  preservation  and  payment  to  Landreau  of  the  amount  due 
under  his  contract.  If  transfer  be  made  to  Chili  it  should  be  understood  that  this  claim 
of  an  American  citizen,  if  fairly  adjudicated  in.his  favor,  shall,  be  treated  as  a  proper  lien  on 
the  property  to  which  it  attaches,  and  that  Chili  accepts  the  cession  with  that  condition 
annexed.  As  it  m^y  be  presumed  that  you  will  be  fully  informed  as  to  the  progress  of 
the  negotiations  between  Chili  and  Peru  for  a  treaty  of  peace,  you  will  make  such  effort 
as  you  judiciously  can  to  secure  for  Landreau  a  fair  settlement  of  his  claim.  You  will 
take  special  care  to  notify  both  the  Chilian  and  Peruvian  authorities  of  the  character  and 
status  of  the  claim  in  order  that  no  definitive  treaty  of  peace  shall  be  made  in  disregard  of 
the  rights  which  Landreau  may  be  found  to  possess.  " 


OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY.  271 

In  this  connection  the  following  testimony  of  Mr.  Blaine  before  the  committee, 
in  response  to  questions  by  Mr.  Belmont,  becomes  of  interest : 

Mr.  Belmont — Or  either  of  them,  because  Mr.  Trescot  at  that  time  was  proceeding 
to  Chili  and  Peru.  Was  not  the  effect  of  those  instructions  that  General  Hurlbut  should 
take  special  care  to  inform  both  the  Chilian  and  Peruvian  authorities  of  the  character  and 
status  of  the  claim  of  J.  C  Landreau,  in  order  that  no  definitive  treaty  of  peace  should  be 
made  in  disregard  of  the  rights  which  Landreau  might  be  found  to  possess  ? 

The  Witness — Yes. 

Q.  Was  not  the  effect  of  those  instructions  to  require  General  Hurlbut  to  insist  that 
Chili  should  stipulate,  in  a  treaty  of  peace,  that  if  it  should  be  decided  by  the  Peruvian 
Government  that  J.  C.  Landreau  had  a  lien  on  any  territory  ceded  to  Chili,  that  Chili 
should  thereupon  recognize  that  lien? — A.    Yes;  that  he  should  make  that  request. 

Q.  If  Chili  had  refused  to  make  such  stipulation,  would  not  General  Hurlbut  have 
been  bound  to  resist,  to  the  extent  of  his  influence,  the  signing  of  a  treaty  of  peace  with- 
out the  stipulation  ? 

The  Witness — What  had  he  to  do  with  the  signing  ? 

Mr.  Belmont — I  have  not  finished.  Now,  Mr.  Blaine,  without  any  more  non- 
sense  

The  Witness — Well,  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that,  Mr.  Belmont;  I  am  very  glad  to 
hear  it,  indeed. 

Mr.  Belmont — Now,  will  you  answer  the  question  ? 

The  Witness — If  you  will  state  it  again  I  will. 

Q.  I  ask  if  Chili  had  refused  to  make  such  stipulation,  would  not  General  Hurlbut 
have  been  bound  to  resist,  to  the  extent  of  his  influence,  the  signing  of  a  treaty  of  peace 
without  the  stipulation? — A.    Yes,  sir. 

Q.  He  would  ? — A.  Yes,  sir.  I  admit  that  he  ought  to  have  used  all  his  influence 
to  prevent  a  treaty  of  peace  that  should  shut  out  the  rights  of  an  American  citizen. 

Q.  You  say  that  he  would  ? — A.  Yes,  sir.  He  would  have  been  censurable  if  he 
had  not. 

Q.    Well,  you  have  given  the  answer  I  was  seeking. 

In  further  illustration  of  Mr.  Blaine's  officiousness,  we  quote  as  follows  from 
his  letter  of  instructions  (Dec.  1,  1881)  while  Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Trescott, 
whom  he  was  about  sending  on  a  mission  to  South  America  : 

"In  giving  the  support  of  recognition  to  the  Calderon  government,  so  far  was  this 
government  from  doing  what  could  be  considered  an  unfriendly  act  to  Chili  that  it  was,  in 
fact,  giving  aid  to  the  very  policy  Chili  avowed,  and  which,  in  the  opinion  of  competent 
judges,  was  the  only  method  of  reasonable  solution.  And  this  conclusion  of  the  govern- 
ment was  strengthened  and  confirmed  by  the  information  which  was  transmitted  to  the 
department  by  Gen.  Kilpatrick,  United  States  Minister  to  Chili.  *  *  *  As  soon  as 
the  facts  indicated  the  possibility  of  real  and  independent  vitality  in  the  constitution  of 
the  Calderon  government,  the  Chilian  authorities  issued  an  order  forbidding  any  exercise 
of  its  functions  within  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Chilian  army  that  is  within  the  entire 
territory  west  of  the  mountains,  includingthe  capital  and  ports  of  Peru.  Unable  to 
understand  this  sudden  and — giving  due  regard  to  the  professions  of  Chili — this  unaccount- 
able change  of  policy,  this  government  instructed  its  minis'ter  at  Lima  to  continue  to  recog- 
nize the  Calderon  government  until  more  complete  information  would  enable  it  to  send 
further  instructions.  If  our  present  information  is  correct,  immediately  on  receipt  of  this 
communication  they  arrested  President  Calderon,  and  thus,  as  far  as  was  in  their  power, 
extinguished  his  government.  The  President  does  not  now  insist  on  the  inference  which 
this  action  would  warrant.  He  hopes  there  is  some  explanation  which  will  relieve  him 
from  the  painful  impression.  It  was  taken  as  a  resentful  reply  to  the  continued  recog- 
nition of  the  Calderon  government  by  the  United  States.  If,  unfortunately,  he  should 
be  mistaken,  and  such  motive  be  avowed,  your  duty  will  be  a  brief  one.  You  will 
say  to  the  Chilian  government  that  the  President  considers  such  a  proceeding  as  an 
intentional  and  unwarranted  offence,  and  you  will  communicate  such  an  avowal  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  with  the  assurance  that  it  will  be  regarded  by  the 
Government  as  an  act  of  such  unfriendly  import  as  to  require  the  immediate  suspension 
of  all  diplomatic  intercourse. 

******** 

"  Should  the  Chilian  Government,  while  disclaiming  any  intention  of  offence,  maintain 
its  right  to  settle  its  difficulties  with  Peru  without  the  friendly  intervention  of  other 
powers,  and  refuse  to  allow  the  formation  of  any  government  in  Peru  which  does  not 
pledge  consent  to  the  cession  of  Peruvian  territory,  it  will  be  your  duty,  in  language  as 


272  OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 

strong  as  is  consistent  with  the  respect  due  an  independent  power,  to  express  the  disap- 
pointment and  dissatisfaction  felt  by  the  United  States  at  such  a  deplorable  policy. 

******** 

"  The  United  States,  with  which  Peru  has  for  many  years  maintained  most  cordial 
relations,  has  a  right  to  feel  and  express  deep  interest  in  its  distressed  condition,  and 
while  with  equal  friendliness  to  Chili,  we  will  not  interpose  to  deprive  her  of  the  fair 
advantages  of  military  success,  nor  to  put  any  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  future 
security,  we  cannot  regard  with  unconcern  the  destruction  of  Peruvian  nationality.  If 
our  good  offices  are  neglected,  and  this  policy  of  the  absorption  of  an  independent 
state  be  persisted  in,  this  Government  will  consider  itself  discharged  from  any  further 
obligation  to  be  influenced  in  its  action  by  the  position  which  Chili  has  assumed,  and  will 
hold  itself  free  to  appeal  to  other  republics  of  this  continent  to  join  it  in  an  effort  to  avert 
consequences  which  cannot  be  confined  to  Chili  and  Peru,  but  which  threaten  with 
extremest  danger,  the  political  institutions,  peaceful  progress,  and  liberal  civilization  of 
all  America.  " 

Boundary  Between  Mexico  and  Guatemala. 

Mr.  Blaine's  officiousness  in  matters  in  dispute  between  the  two  sister  republics, 
Mexico  and  Guatemala,  may  be  seen  from  the  following  extracts  from  official  cor- 
respondence between  him,  while  Secretary  of  State,  and  Mr.  Morgan,  the  United 
States  minister  at  the  City  of  Mexico. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Morgan  under  date  of  June  16,  1881,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  : 

"Without,  therefore,  in  any  way  prejudging  the  contention  between  Mexico  and 
Guatemala,  but  acting  as  the  unbiased  councillor  of  both,  the  President  deems  it  his 
duty  to  set  before  the  government  of  Mexico  his  conviction  of  the  danger  to  the  principles 
which  Mexico  has  so  signally  and  successfully  defended  in  the  past  which  would  eusue, 
should  disrespect  be  shown  to  the  boundaries  which  separate  her  from  her  weaker  neigh 
bors,  or  should  the  authority  of  force  be  resorted  to  in  establishment  of  rights  over  terri- 
tory which  they  claim,  without  the  conceded  justification  of  her  just  title  thereto.  And 
especially  would  the  President  regard  as  an  unfriendly  act  toward  the  cherished  plan  of 
upbuilding  strong  republican  governments  in  Spanish  America,  if  Mexico,  whose  power 
and  generosity  should  be  a  like  signal  in  such  a  case,  shall  seek  or  permit  any  misunder- 
standing with  Guatemala,  when  the  path  toward  a  pacific  avoidance  of  trouble  is  at  once 
so  easy  and  so  imperative  an  international  duty.1' 

In  another  letter  to  Mr.  Morgan,  June  21,  1881,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  : 

"  This  is  a  matter  touching  which  the  now-established  policy  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  refrain  from  territorial  acquisition  gives  it  the  right  to  use  its  friendly 
offices  in  discouragement  of  any  movement  on  the  part  of  neighboring  states  which  may 
tend  to  disturb  the  balance  of  power  between  them.  More  than  this,  the  maintenance 
of  this  honorable  attitude  of  example  involves,  to  a  large  extent,  a  moral  obligation  on 
our  part,  as  the  strong  but  disinterested  friend  of  all  our  sister  states,  to  exert  our  influ- 
ence for  the  preservation  of  the  national  life  and  integrity  of  any  one  of  them  against 
aggression,  whether  this  may  come  from  abroad  or  from  another  American  republic,  by 
his  government  to  avert  a  conflict  with  Guatemala  by  diplomatic  means,  or,  these  failing, 
by  resort  to  arbitration.  And  you  will  especially  intimate,  discreetly  but  distinctly,  that 
the  good  feeling  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States  requires,  and  will  be  fortified  by 
a  frank  avowal  that  the  Mexican  policy  toward  the  neighboring  states  is  not  one  of  con- 
quest or  aggrandizement,  but  of  consideration,  peace  and  friendship." 

In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morgan  to  Mr.  Blaine,  July  12,  1881,  he  thus  alludes  to  an 
interview  had  with  Mr.  Mariscal,  Secretary  of  State  of  Mexico  : 

"  In  reply  to  the  suggestion  of  the  arbitrament  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  he 
replied  that  whatever  Mexico  might  be  willing  to  accede  to  in  the  future,  there  was 
nothing  at  the  present  moment  to  arbitrate  about.  He  said  that  Mexico  had  proposed  to 
Guatemala  to  renew  the  convention  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  survey  the 
tract  of  country  which  was  in  dispute,  that  the  question  of  the  appointment  of  such  a 
commission  was  pending,  and  that  until  that  question  should  be  decided  there  was,  in 
reality,  no  dispute  to  submit  to  an  arbitrator.  He  also  declared  that  if  there  had  been 
any  delay  in  the  appointing  of  such  a  commission,  the  fault  was  altogether  with  Guate- 
mala. He  also  said  that  troops  had  been  sent  to  the  frontier,  as  the  President  had 
announced  in  his  message  to  Congress,  but  that  they  were  sent  there  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  Mexican  citizens,  and    not  with    any  view  of  making  war  upon  Guatemala. 


OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY.  273 

Mr.  Mariscal  was  very  earnest  in  his  denials  of  any  cause  of  complaint  on  the  part  of 
Guatemala,  and  as  to  the  want  of  any  necessity  of  an  arbitration,  so  much  so,  that  I 
deemed  it  proper,  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  possible  question  hereafter,  either  as  to 
the  letter  or  the  spirit  of  your  instructions,  or  their  interpretation  by  me,  to  read  Senor 
Mariscal  your  dispatch,  and  offered  to  send  him  a  copy  thereof,  which  he  accepted,  and 
which  I  did." 

In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morgan  to  Mr.  Blaine,  July  19,  1881,  is  the  following 
allusion  to  another  interview  with  Mr.  Mariscal : 

"  Senor  Mariscal  manifested  something  of  excitement,  I  thought,  and  interrupted  me 
by  repeating  the  complaints  which  Mexico  had,  as  he  said,  just  grounds  to  make  against 
Guatemala  ;  of  her  want  of  fair  dealing,  and,  in  fact,  duplicity  in  pretending  to  negotiate 
a  convention  with  him  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners  to  survey  the  strip  of 
territory  which  was  in  dispute,  with  the  view  of  finally  settling  the  boundaries  between 
the  two  countries,  while  she  had  been  secretly  attempting  to  obtain  the  interference  of 
the  United  States  in  their  disputes,  thus  rendering  the  appointment  of  a  commission 
unnecessary.  He  insisted  upon  it  that  it  was  Guatemala  that  had  committed  acts  of 
aggression  upon  Mexico,  instead  of  Mexico  upon  Guatemala." 

In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morgan  to  Mr.  Blaine,  August  11,  1881,  he  again  refers  to 
an  interview  with  Mr.  Mariscal,  as  follows  : 

"Senor  Mariscal  said  that  he  would  not  say  that  Mexico  would  altogether  refuse  the 
arbitration  proposed,  but  that  there  were  some  points  of  difference  between  the  two 
-countries  which  could  not,  under  any  circumstances,  be  submitted  to  question.  " 

In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morgan  to  Mr.  Blaine,  September  22,  1881,  he  draws  the 
following  significant  conclusion,  after  reporting  an  interview  with  Mr.  Mariscal : 

"  Senor  Mariscal  reiterated  that  if  there  should  be  a  war  with  Guatemala  it  would  be 
Guatemala's  fault.  He  admitted  that  the  course  pursued  by  the  United  States  was 
friendly  in  its  character,  although  he  persisted  in  saying  the  facts  of  the  case  had  been 
misrepresented  by  Guatemala  to  you. 

"We  parted  on  the  best  of  terms,  but  he  left  me  more  than  ever  convinced  that  nothing 
would  prevent  a  war  between  the  two  countries  unless  a  positive  position  was  taken  by 
the  United  States,  and  I  venture  to  suggest  that  unless  the  Government  is  prepared  to 
announce  to  the  Mexican  Government  that  it  will  actively,  if  necessary,  preserve  the 
peace,  it  would  be  the  part  of  wisdom  on  our  side  to  leave  the  matter  where  it  is. 
Negotiations  on  the  subject  will  not  benefit  Guatemala,  and  you  may  depend  upon  it  that 
what  we  have  already  done  m  this  direction  has  not  tended  to  the  increasing  of  the 
cordial  relations  which  I  know  it  is  so  much  your  desire  to  cultivate  with  this  nation.  " 

Upon  Mr.  Blaine's  reply  to  the  letter  from  which  we  have  just  quoted,  ofiicious- 
ness  is  indelibly  stamped.     In  it  under  date  of  November  28,  1881,  he  says  : 

"  'To  leave -the  matter  where  it  is'  you  must  perceive  is  simply  impossible,  for  it  will 
not  remain  there.  The  friendly  relations  of  the  United  States  and  Mexico  would 
certainly  not  be  promoted  by  the  refusal  of  the  good  offices  of  this  Government  tendered 
in  a  spirit  of  most  cordial  regard  both  for  the  interests  and  honor  of  Mexico,  and  suggested 
only  by  the  earnest  desire  to  prevent  a  war  useless  in  its  purpose,  deplorable  in  its  means, 
and  dangerous  to  the  best  interests  of  all  the  Central  American  republics  in  its  conse- 
quences. To  put  aside  such  an  amicable  intervention  as  an  unfriendly  intrusion,  or  to 
treat  it,  as  I  regret  to  see  the  Mexican  secretary  for  foreign  affairs  seems  disposed,  as  a 
partisan  manifestation  on  behalf  of  claims  which  we  have  not  examined  and  interests 
which  we:totally  misunderstand  certainly  cannot  contribute  '  to  the  increasing  of  the  cordial 

relations  which  you  know  it  is  so  much  our  desire  to  cultivate  with  Mexico. ' 

********  *  * 

"  If  this  Government  is  expected  to-infer  from  the  language  of  Senor  Mariscal  that  the 
prospect  of  such  a  result  is  not  agreeable  to  the  policy  of  Mexico,  and  that  the  interest 
which  the  United  States  has  always  manifested  in  its  consummation  renders  unwelcome 
the  friendly  intervention  which  we  have  offered,  I  can  only  say  that  it  deepens  the  regret 
with  which  we  will  learn  the  decision  of  the  Mexican  Government,  and  compels  me  to 
declare  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  will  consider  a  hostile  demonstration 
against  Guatamala,  for  the  avowed  purpose  or  with  the  certain  result  of  weakening  her 
power  in  such  an  effort,  as  an  act  not  in  consonance  with  the  position  and  character  of 
Mexico,  not  in  harmony  with  the  friendly  relations  existing  between  us,  and  injurious  to 
the  bestinterests  of  all  the  republics  of  this  continent." 

18 


274  OUR   FOREIGN    POLICY. 

In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morgan  to  Mr.  Blaine  dated  Mexico,  November  2,  1881,  is 
the  following  significant  paragraph  : 

"The  subject  is  on  every  tongue.  It  is  constantly  discussed  by  the  press,  and  I  feel  it 
my  duty  to  say  that  nothing  has  occurred  since  I  have  been  here  which  has  excited  so 
much  bad  feeling  against  us  as  this  proffer  of  arbitration .  Say  what  I  may  to  the 
contrary,  it  is  considered  as  a  menace. " 

In  Mr.  Blaine's  recent  letter  of  acceptance,  he  has  a  new  foreign  policy  of  the 
Quaker  style.  The  question  naturally  arises,  which  will  be  his  policy  if  elected 
President — that  pursued  while  Secretary  of  State  or  that  announced  for  campaign 
purposes  ?  On  the  theory  that  acts  speak  louder  than  words,  the  intelligent  and 
conservative  citizen  will  hesitate  a  long  time  before  voting  for  one  whose  well 
known  officiousness,  rashness,  and  audacity  are  anything  but  safeguards  against 
foreign  complications. 

Citizens  of  the  United  States  have  already  spent  upwards  of  $50,000,000  in  the 
construction  of  Mexican  railways,  and  they  do  not  wish  their  business  interests 
disturbed  by  needless  animosities  between  the  two  countries. 

Conservative  Policy  of  the  Democratic  Party. 

The  Democratic  foreign  policy  is  inherited  from  the  sentiments  of  "Washington 
and  Jefferson. 

In  Washington's  farewell  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  was  the 
following  excellent  advice  : 

"  The  great  rule  of  conduct  for  us  in  regard  to  foreign  nations  is,  in  extending 
our  commercial  relations,  to  have  with  them  as  little  political  connexion  as  pos- 
sible. *  *  *  It  is  our  policy  to  steer  clear  of  permanent  alliances  with  any 
portion  of  the  foreign  world." 

The  doctrine  laid  down  in  Jefferson's  inaugural  address  was  as  follows  : 

"  Peace,  commerce,  and  honest  friendship  with  all  nations — entangling  alliances 
with  none." 


HONEST   MONEY    FOR   HONEST   LABOR.  275 


Honest  Money  for  Honest  Labor. 

Speech  of  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt. 

In  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  April  1,  1884,  Hon.  Abram  S. 
Hewitt,  of  New  York,  said  : 

I  agree  with  the  gentleman  from  Maine  [Mr.  Dingley]  in  his  proposition  that  this 
House  shall  not  sanction  by  any  act  the  increase  of  the  coinage  of  the  standard  silver 
dollar.  But  I  go  further  than  the  gentleman  from  Maine.  I  think  the  time  has^come  when 
this  House  should  put  its  seal  of  condemnation  upon  the  coinage  of  one  single  additional 
standard  dollar.  My  friend' from  Missouri  [Mr.  Bland]  has  achieved,  I  was  going  to  say 
immortality,  but  certainly  great  renown,  by  having  identified  himself  with  a  measure 
which  according  to  his  view  has  made  85  cents'  worth  of  silver  equivalent  in  value  to  $1. 
He  has  done  that  by  act  of  Congress,  and  he  has  done' it  on  the  principle  of  lifting  our- 
selves by  our  shoulder-straps.  Such  experiments  must  always  fail.  If  they  could  succeed, 
then  my  friend  from  Missouri  has  discovered  the  philosopher's  stone  which  would  enable 
us  hereafter  to  dispense  with  all  human  efforts  and  to  provide  ourselves  with  all  the  com- 
forts and  luxuries  of  life  by  a  simple  act  of  Congress. 

The  gentleman  from  Missouri  now  comes  into  the  House  with  another  proposition, 
which  suggests  the  old  nursery  rhyme  of  Mother  Goose  : 

There  was  a  man  in  our  town 

And  he  was  wondrous  wise, 
He  jumped  into  a  bramble  bush 

And  scratched  out  both  his  eyes. 

And  when  he  found  his  eyes  were  out, 

With  all  his  might  and  main, 
He  jumped  into  another  bush  < 

And  scratched  them  in  again. 
[Laughter.] 

The  proposition  which  the  gentleman  now  makes  to  this  House  is  the  proposition  of 
free  coinage  for  silver.  By  the'restricted  coinage  which  goes  on  under  his  bill  of  $2,000,000 
per  month  the  Government  is  making  on  paper  as  he  said  $300,000  of  profit  per  month. 
By  opening  the  mints  to  unrestricted  coinage  he  would  give  up  the  nominal  profit  to  the 
Government  of  $300,000  per  month  and  transfer  a  real  profit  of  15  per  cent,  into  the 
pockets  of  those  who  shall  be  fortunate  enough  to  get  in  first  through  the  open  doors  of 
the  mint  with  their  silver  bullion.  Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  let  us  apply  to  this  novel  proposi- 
tion the  test  of  fact  and  of  simple  principle. 

The  unit  of  value  by  law  in  the  United  States  is  the  gold  dollar,  weighing  25.8  grains. 

Mr.  Warner,  of  Ohio — When  was  it  made  so  ? 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — I  am  merely  stating  a  fact,  and  in  the  time  I  have  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  interrupted.  It  was  in  1854  that  that  was  done.  Now  at  25.8  grains  to 
the  dollar  an  ounce  of  gold  is  worth  $18.60.  By  law  the  relative  comage  value  of  gold 
and  silver  is  as  one  to  sixteen.  Therefore  the  coinage  value  of  the  ounce  of  silver  is 
$1.16^.  We  are  able  to  go  into  the  market  to  buy  an  ounce  of  silver  at  $1.01,  and, 
taking  the  average  of  the  last  year,  we  are  buying  at  a  little  less  now  than  $1.01  per 
ounce. 

What  is  the  proposition  of  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  ?  That  for  the  silver  which 
we  can  buy  in  unlimited  quantities  in  this  or  any  other  market  in  the  world  for  101  cents 
per  ounce,  he  would  pay  out  of  the  treasury  of  this  nation  116^  cents  per  ounce.  In 
other  words,  he  would  give  to  every  man  who  brings  an  ounce  of  silver  to  be  coined  15 


276  HONEST   MONEY   FOR  HONEST   LABOR. 

cents  more  in  coin  than  the  market  value  of  that  silver,  and  15  cents  more  per  ounce  than 
it  is  or  can  be  bought  for  by  the  Government  for  coining  purposes. 

Mr.  Bland — Will  the  gentleman  yield  for  a  moment  ? 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — I  cannot,  for  I  have  but  a  limited  time. 

Mr.  Bland — I  am  glad  that  I  was  more  polite  to  the  gentleman  than  he  is  to  me. 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — I  will  yield  all  my  time  to  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  Brand — I  do  not  want  it. 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — I  will  yield  all  my  time. 

Mr.  Bland — I  yielded  to  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — Yes  ;  but  the  gentleman  had  an  hour,  while  I  have  but 
fifteen  minutes. 
Mr.  Bland — I  will  not  interrupt  the  gentleman. 

Result  of  Free  Coinage. 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York — The  controversy  is  one  of  fact.  What  would  happen? 
Of  course  all  the  world  who  are  now  trying  to  sell  silver  for  101  cents  per  ounce  will 
come  to  our  mints,  where  they  could  sell  it  for  116 J  cents  per  ounce.  It  will  be  "  the 
devil  take  the  hindmost "  in  the  rush  to  sell  silver  for  15  cents  per  ounce  more  than  its 
market  value. 

And  under  his  proposition  the  Government  must  take  the  silver  and  pay  that  rate  for 
it.  I  suppose  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  would  provide  a  bullion  fund  for  this  pur- 
pose. Has  he  ever  considered  the  magnitude  of  the  bullion  fund  which  would  have  to 
be  provided  ?  There  is  supposed  to  be  in  existence  in  the  world  $6,000,000,000  of 
silver ;  and  the  holders  of  the  whole  of  that  $6,000,000,000  would  rush  to  our  mints 
under  the  gentleman's  proposition.  And  if  we  were  to  buy  it  all  and  keep  the  mints  open 
the  bullion  fund  which  we  would  have  to  provide  would  have  to  be  on  the  scale  of 
magnificence  proportioned  to  so  vast  an  operation.  It  would  certainly  provide  an  outlet 
at  once  for  the  idle  and  useless  fund  of  $126,000,000  of  silver  dollars  now  stored  at 
great  expense  in  the  Treasury. 

But  no  such  thing  would  happen ;  the  limitation  would  be  the  coinage  capacity  of 
our  mints.  To  the  extent  of  the  coinage  capacity  of  our  mints,  which  would  probably 
not  much,  if  any,  exceed  the  silver  production  of  this  country,  which  is  about  $40,000,000 
worth  per  annum,  the  Government  would  be  giving  15  per  cent,  more  than  the  market 
value  of  silver  bullion  in  this  or  any  other  markets  in  the  world. 

What  is  the  next  step?  Every  man  who  had  thus  received  116  cents  per  ounce  for 
that  which  is  worth  in  the  markets  of  the  world  only  101  cents  per  ounce  would  hasten  to 
put  it  into  some  form  of  useful  value.  First  of  all  he  would  prefer  gold,  for  gold  will 
buy  everything  else  in  every  market  in  the  world.  The  consequence  would  be  that  the 
rush  for  gold  would  immediately  raise  it  to  a  premium,  and  the  limit  of  that  premium 
will  be  just  the  difference  in  the  bullion  value  of  silver  and  gold.  In  other  words,  the 
premium  would  be  15  per  cent. ,  because,  as  everybody  knows,  gold  and  silver  are  dealt 
in  by  the  money-brokers  all  over  the  world  on  a  margin  of  one-eighth  of  I  per  cent. 

Then,  when  gold  went  up  to  a  premium,  the  next  rush  would  be  to  buy  commodities 
with  silver  dollars  on  the  old  standard  of  values,  and  the  price  of  commodities  would  all 
advance.  They  are  bought  and  sold  to-day  at  gold  value,  but  the  price  would  then  ad- 
vance with  the  premium  on  gold,  and  they  would  thereafter  be  sold  at  silver  values.  In 
other  words,  all  the  necessaries  of  life  would  be  rapidly  advanced  until  they  would  pur- 
chase as  much  gold  as  they  did  before  the  premium  existed. 

Wages  of  Labor. 

Then  the  workingman  who  receives  his  wage  of  one  or  two  dollars  per  day,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  10  whom  the  rise  always  comes  last  and  sometimes  never  comes, 
would  be  compelled  to  buy  his  supplies  at  15  per  cent,  advance.  This  measure,  there- 
fore, would  operate  as  a  deduction  from  the  wages  of  labor  of  just  15  per  cent. 

Then  what  next  would  happen  ?  I  shall  be  told  that  this  proposition  would  enable 
the  poor  man  to  pay  his  debts  at  15  per  cent,  deduction  from  what  he  had  agreed  to 
pay  ;  that  this  is  sound  in  principle  and  a  most  beneficent  feature  of  the  plan.  In  re- 
sisting it  I  shall  be  told  that  I  represent  the  capitalistic  class  and  am  the  organ  of  Wall 
street.  Now,  the  rich  man  knows  how  to  take  care  of  himself.  The  poor  man  does 
not  know  and  can  not  know  how  to  take  care  of  himself,  and  we  are  sent  here  as  far  as 
possible  to  take  care  of  him,  and  it  is  for  that  reason  I  strive  to-day  to  expose  the  fallacy 
of  a  proposition  which  can  only  have  the  effect  of  making  the   rich   richer  and  the  poor 

poorer. 

I  resist,  then,  this  proposition  of  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  because,  in  the  first 
place,  it  would  rob  the  poor  man  of  15  per  cent,  of  his  present  wages,  measured  by  its 


HONEST   MONEY   FOR  HONEST   LABOR.  277 

purchasing  power  ;  and  in  the  next  place  it  would  rob  him  of  15  per  cent,  of  the  hard 
earnings  which  he  has  saved  against  a  rainy  day.  The  rich  men  hold  property  which 
would  rise  in  value  with  the  premium  on  gold.  They  hold  bonds  of  railroad  companies, 
which  by  the  letter  of  the  contract  are  made  payable  in  gold. 

Savings  of  the   People. 

But  all  debts  not  payable  in  gold  would  be  solvable  in  silver.  Where  are  those 
debts,  and  to  whom  do  they  belong  ?  The  great  lenders  of  this  country  are  the  savings- 
banks,  the  mutual  insurance  companies,  and  the  incorporated  companies  which  hold  in 
trust  the  savings  of  the  poor  and  the  earnings  of  labor.  Their  loans  are  made  payable  in 
lawful  money,  and  will  be  paid  off  in  the  depreciated  silver  which  will  follow  its  free  and 
unlimited  coinage,  for  in  the  end  the  silver  coins  can  have  no  greater  value  than  the 
market  price  of  the  bullion  from  which  they  are  eoined. 

Therefore,  when  this  depreciation  of  15  per  cent,  takes  place  all  the  loans  made  by 
savings  banks,  trust  companies,  and  mutual  insurance  companies,  amounting  to  more 
than  $100,000,000,  representing  the  earnings  of  professional  men  who  live  upon  salaries, 
the  savings  of  clerks,  the  sole  provision  for  widows  and  orphans  would  be  payable  in 
silver,  to  the  loss  in  my  city  and  in  my  district  of  millions  of  dollars  laboriously  saved  by 
the  most  deserving  classes  of  the  community,  and  who,  since  the  recent  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Legal-tender  case,  have  no  other  protection  than  in  the  wisdom  of 
Congress. 

I  represent  a  district  in  which  there  are  but  few  capitalists.  I  represent  150,000 
people  who  earn  their  daily  bread  by  their  daily  labor.  They  are  an  industrious  and 
saving  constituency.  Their  money  is  in  the  savings  banks  of  the  city  of  New  York.  You 
will  be  astonished  to  know  it,  but  in  the  State  of  New  York  over  $500,000,000  of  the 
savings  of  these  people  are  to-day  loaned  out  to  be  paid  back  in  the  money  of  the  land. 
If  that  money  be  depreciated  15  per  cent.,  then  the  people  will  lose  15  per  cent,  of  all 
their  accumulated  earnings.  And  this  depreciation  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  down- 
ward course  in  the  value  of  silver.  The  commercial  world  has  outgrown  the  use  of  silver 
as  a  neeessary  tool  of  commerce.  Gold  and  paper  instruments  of  exchange  have  taken 
its  place.  They  are  better  and  cheaper  tools  of  trade.  Silver  is  relegated  to  its  proper 
place  as  a  convenient  subsidiary  money,  of  which  the  intrinsic  value  is  of  no  consequence 
so  long  as  there  is  local  redemption  for  it  within  the  area  where  it  circulates. 

But  gold  pays  international  balances,  and  is  and  will  remain  the  sole  standard  of 
value  in  the  great  markets  of  the  world.  Hence,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  oppose  the  whole  pro- 
position of  the  gentleman  to  open  our  mints  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  for  the  reason 
that  thereby  the  nation  would  lose  at  once  15  per  cent,  on  all  the  silver  which  would  flow 
into  this  country  from  foreign  countries  now  earnestly  seeking  an  opportunity  to  get  rid 
of  the  heavy  load  of  silver  which  weighs  them  down  and  embarrasses  their  finances.  In 
the  Bank  of  France  alone  there  are  $200,000,000  seeking  a  market.  The  German 
Government  stopped  the  sale  of  its  silver  when  it  went  below  55  pence  to  the  ounce,  and 
is  waiting  a  chance  to  unload  another  one  hundred  millions  on  anybody  that  will  buy  it. 

But  outside  of  these  countries,  whence  I  have  heard  it  said  on  this  floor  silver  could 
not  come  because  "  the  people  of  this  country  were  not  such  fools  as  to  buy  the  worth- 
less stuff,"  outside  of  these  countries  are  India  and  China,  the  sinks  of  silver  for  more 
than  two  thousand  years.  In  these  countries  gold  is  already  at  a  premium  of  15  per 
cent,  as  compared  with  silver  ;  and  men  who  could  bring  silver  from  India  to  this  coun- 
try and  convert  it  into  gold,  as  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  would  allow  them  to  do  by 
his  proposition  of  free  coinage,  would  of  course  make  all  speed  to  gather  up  from  all 
quarters  the  vast  fund  of  silver  in  those  countries  and  dump  it  down  upon  the  people  of 
this  land,  where  the  loss  will  fall  upon  the  laboring  classes,  who,  unless  we  interpose  for 
their  benefit,  will  be  helpless  to  protect  themselves. 

Gentlemen  who  flatter  themselves  that  the  silver  of  the  world  will  not  seek  the 
market  where  bullion  fetches  the  highest  price  deliberately  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
inexorable  laws  of  trade.  Silver  circulates  in  France  at  the  ratio  of  15^  to  I  of  gold 
only  because  there  is  no  coinage  of  silver  by  the  Latin  Union.  This  coinage  was  sus- 
pended simply  to  avoid  the  depreciation  of  silver  coins  to  the  bullion  value  which  would 
otherwise  have  taken  place.  Give  it  a  market  at  more  than  its  bullion  value,  and  it  will 
be  replaced  with  gold  as  surely  as  the  air  rushes  into  a  vacuum. 

The  depreciation  of  our  silver  coins,  Mr.  Speaker,  would  occur  at  once  if  the  mints 
were  now  opened  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  What  would  occur  at  once  in  that  event, 
is  just  as  sure  to  occur,  if  you  allow  time  enough,  under  the  limited  coinage  act  of  $2,000,- 
000  a  month.  This  depreciation  will  be  the  slow  but  sure  work  of  the  monster  steadily 
digging  away  at  the  foundations  of  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  this  country,  so  that  in  a 
little  while  we  shall  be  brought  to  the  silver  basis  ;  and  then  all  the  consequences  I  have 


278 


HONEST  MONEY  FOR  HONEST  LABOR. 


predicted  will  occur  just  as  certainly  as  if  the  gentleman  were  able  to  carry  out  his  plan 
of  free  coinage  at  once.  In  that  proposition  he  is  perfectly  logical.  If  we  are  to  go  on 
with  the  coinage  of  silver  at  all,  the  unlimited  coinage  which  the  gentleman  proposes  is 
the  only  defensible  position,  and  ought  to  be  put  into  effect,  if  it  were  not  for  the  disas- 
trous consequences  which  would  send  a  flood  of  ruin  over  this  land. 

But  as  I  have  said  those  consequences  are  unavoidable,  whether  we  continue  the  lim- 
ited coinage  or  institute  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  Twice  in  my  life  have  I  witnessed  the 
transfer  in  this  country  of  vast  masses  ot  wealth  from  the  possession  of  those  who  have 
created  it,  to  the  ownership  of  those  who  were  shrewd  or  fortunate  enough  to  profit  by 
the  situation.  Once  was  when  the  legal-tender  act  was  passed  and  creditors  were  forced  to 
take  40  cents  in  payment  of  100  cents  which  was  their  just  due.  Again,  when  the 
resumption  of  specie  payment  took  place  in  1879,  persons  who  had  borrowed  40  cents  were 
forced  to  pay  the  debt  with  100  cents.  No  tongue  can  describe  the  ruin  and  the  misery 
caused  by  this  wholesale  transfer  of  property,  the  wrecks  of  which  still  survive  in  every  State 
in  this  Union.  It  is  because  I  hope  to  be  spared  the  sad  spectacle  of  another  such  unjust 
and  uncalled  for  reversal  of  the  laws  which  ought  to  govern  the  acquisition  and  transfer 
of  property,  that  I  oppose,  and  shall  oppose,  the  degradation  of  the  standard  of  value, 
whereby  one  class  of  the  community,  and  the  most  deserving  as  it  is  the  most  helpless 
class,  is  pillaged  by  law  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  live  by  the  sweat  and  toil  of  their 
less  fortunate  and  more  confiding  fellow -men.      [Applause.  ] 

Appendix. 

INDIA — FALLING   OFF   IN  THE  DEMAND   FOR   SILVER. 

The  India  department  of  finance  and  commerce  states  the  silver  imports  and 
exports  of  India,  taking  its  trade  with  all  countries  for  the  last  four  years  (the 
Indian  fiscal  year,  like  the  British,  ending  March  31),  as  follows  : 


Fibcal  Tear. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Net  Imports. 

1877-78 

$78,832,660 
27,968,495 
48,025,010 
26,580,780 

$5,500,985 
8,115,025 
8,676,295 
7,117,910 

$73,331,675 

1878-'79 

19,853,475 

1879-'80 

39,348,715 

1880-'81 

19,462,870 

Table  showing  increase  of  circulation  in  the  United  States. 


Total  Circulation. 

Per  capita. 

Date. 

Paper. 

Coin. 

Total. 

October  1,  1880 

$1,225,359,234 
1,529,548,612 
1,566,659,668 
1,730,598,074 

$14  10 
15  56 
15  81 
17  63 

$10  66 

14  93 

15  42 

16  88 

$24  76 

October  1,  1881 

30  49 

October  1,  1882 

October  1,  1883 

31  23 
34  51 

Total  circulation  in  United  States  October  1,  1883. 

Gold $606,197,000 

Silver 240,399,000 

Paper 884,002,074 

Total $1,730,598,074 


HONEST   MONEY    FOR  HONEST    LABOR.  279 

Table  showing  increase,  of  silver  in  the  United  Slates  Treasury. 


Date. 


September  30,  1876 
September  30,  1877 
September  30,  1878 
September  30,  1879 
September  30,  1880 
September  30,  1881 
September  30,  1882 
September  30,  1883 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

90.2 

9.8 

93.5 

6.5 

83.0 

17.0 

76.2 

23.8 

63.3 

36.7 

64.7 

35.3 

55.4 

44.6 

58.5 

41.5 

Table  showing  proportions  of 'world 's  production  of  gold  and  silver. 


Semi-decades. 

Average  Yearly  Production. 

Proportion. 

Average. 

PRICE   OF 

Gold. 

Silver. 

SILVER.* 

1852-1856  

$145,000,000 
127,184,000 
123,843,000 
123,251,000 
111,383,750 
113,892,085 
105,365,697 
106,346,786 
107.202,733 
103,161,532 

$40,500,000 
41,220,000 
49,755,000 
53,115,000 
69,490,682 
78,338,158 
81,037,220 
96,704,978 
102,309,675 
109,446,595 

100  to  28 
100  to  32 
100  to  39 
100  to  43 
100  to  62 
100  to  69 
100  to  77 
100  to  90 
100  to  95 
100  to  106 

6iyw 

1857-1861  

61 1 

1862-1866   

6H 

1867-1871 

60i 

1872-1876  

574 

1877-1878  

53H- 

1879 

511 

1880 

52  A 

1881 

1882 

gift 

514 

*  Pence  per  ounce  in  London. 


280  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 


The   Independent    Tidal- Wave. 

Its  Significance. 

Seldom  in  the  history  of  American  politics  has  there  been  such  a  popular  upris- 
ing against  the  Presidential  nominee  of  their  own  party  as  the  Republican  bolt 
against  James  G.  Blaine. 

Leading  and  influential  newspapers,  prominent  business  men,  college  professors, 
and  the  scholars  in  politics,  distinguished  statesmen,  and  thousands,  tens  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  thinking  and  intelligent  voters  view  with  sorrow,  dis- 
gust, and  alarm  the  dangerous  and  corrupt  tendencies  of  their  party,  and  have 
determined  to  rebuke  it  by  voting  for  the  Democratic  nominee. 

Among  the  causes  of  this  independent  tidal  wave  are  the  following: 

Dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Blaine's  bad  public  record. 

Alarm  at  official  corruption. 

Alarm  at  the  party's  subserviency  to  monopolies. 

Opposition  to  its  rapid  drift  toward  centralization. 

Sorrow  at  its  disregard  of  constitutional  methods. 

Irritation  at  its  encroachments  on  personal  liberty  by  the  enactment  of  sumptu- 
ary legislation. 

Nausea  at  its  hypocrisy. 

A  portion  of  these  independent  voters  have  stated  the  grounds  of  their  opposi- 
tion, and  we  will  therefore  let  them  tell  their  own  story. 

Mr.  Codman's  Address. 

At  a  conference  of  Republicans  and  Independents  in  New  York  on  the  22d  of 'July,. 
Col.  Charles  R.  Codman,  of  the  Massachusetts  Committee,  was  elected  President 
of  the  conference,  and  delivered  the  following  address  : 

Fellow  Citizens — You  confer  a  great  honor  upon  me  in  choosing  me  to  preside  in 
this  Conference,  not  of  office-holders,  nor  of  office-seekers,  but  of  citizens  desiring  only 
the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  Republic.  We  have  not  met  here  as  party  men,  we  are 
not  sent  here  by  party  machinery  ;  but  we  come  representing  large  bodies  of  citizens, 
who  have  determined  for  the  time  being  to  set  aside  the  claims  of  party,  whatever  those 
claims  may  be,  and  to  act  together  independently  to  maintain  ideas,  and,  if  possible, 
achieve  results  which  shall  be  for  the  highest  good,  as  we  see  it,  of  the  whole  country. 
The  bond  that  unites  us  is  a  jealous  sensitiveness  for  the  national  character,  and  resent- 
ment at  an  attempt  to  lower  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  would  be,  we  hold,  an  un- 
speakable disgrace — in  full  knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  with  our  eyes  wide  open — to  place 
in  the  Presidential  chair  as  the  representative  statesman  of  the  United  States  a  man  who  has 
never  cleared  his  reputation  from  imputations  which,  if  true,  show  that  public  office  was  used 
by  him  for  private  gain.  We  have  examined  the  evidence  against  Mr.  Blaine,  and  believ- 
ing that  it  shows  at  the  very  least  that  his  standard  of  public  morality  is  low  ;  that  he  is  a 
man  willing  to  expect  and  to  claim  pecuniary  advantages  from  those  whose  interests  he 
has  been  enabled  to  advance  in  the  exercise  of  his  public  office,  and  who  does  not  stop 
at  this,  but  has  no  hesitation  in  promising  to  use  his  official  power  and  influence  to  further 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  281 

the  private  ends  of  those  with  whom  he  desires  to  associate  himself, — claiming  that  he 
will  be  no  "deadhead  "  in  aiding  an  enterprise  which  will  be  the  gainer  by  Congressional 
favor, — joined  with  the  disposition,  when  put  upon  his  defence,  to  equivocate  and  to 
conceal  material  documents  and  material  facts  ;  believing  all  this,  we  say,  as  we  are 
bound  to  say,  to  the  American  people,  that  this  man  is  not  fit  to  be  their  President.  We 
are  making  no  charges  against  private  character  ;  but  we  hold  that  the  official  record 
and  the  public  acts  of  Mr.  Blaine,  his  attitude  toward  railroad  legislation  and  all  other 
legislation,  his  transactions  when  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  or  when 
holding  any  legislative  position,  with  corporations  asking  for  Congressional  aid  or  in 
any  way  dependent  on  Congressional  action,  are  fit  and  proper  subjects  for  investigation 
and  comment.  And,  if  we  are  convinced  that  his  record  shows  moral  malfeasance  in 
office,  it  is  our  right  and  our  duty  boldly  to  declare  our  opinion  and  to  ask  our  fellow- 
citizens  to  refuse  to  confer  upon  such  a  man  their  highest  honors  and  their  most  important 
political  trust. 

Parties  but  Means  to  Ends. 

That  such  is  the  conviction  of  the  members  of  this  Conference  need  not  to  be  said, 
for  why  else  are  we  here  to-day  ?  Acting  as  all  of  us  have  done  at  times  with  the 
Republican  party,  and  most  of  us  never  failing  to  support  its  nominations,  and  some  of 
us  its  supporters  when  it  was  neither  successful  nor  popular,  it  is  not  without  pain  that 
we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  oppose  the  Presidential  nomination  of  this  historical 
organization  ;  but  we  say  that  parties  are  but  means  to  accomplish  political  ends  ;  that 
they  must  stand  for  principles,  if  they  are  to  have  any  more  vitality  than  that  of  a  mere 
organization  ;  and  that  they  cannot  live  alone  upon  the  memory  of  great  results  achieved, 
if  they  do  not  meet  the  demands  of  the  time.  And  we  do  not  see  that  at  the  present 
time  the  great  parties  that  divide  the  country  are  clearly  and  unmistakably  at  issue  upon 
any  important  question,  so  that  we  are  confined  in  this  Presidential  canvass  almost 
exclusively  to  the  question  of  the  fitness  of  candidates. 

It  is  in  some  respects  fortunate  that  it  is  so  ;  for,  if  the  Democrats  had  declared  them- 
selves in  opposition  to  any  political  ideas  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  the 
cardinal  principles  of  the  Republican  party,  and  if  then  the  Republicans  had  nominated 
Mr.  Blaine,  our  position  would  have  been  far  more  trying  than  it  is  to-day.  We  should  have 
been  compelled  to  face  the  painful  and  discouraging  alternative  of  not  sustaining  cher- 
ished political  opinions  or  of  voting  for  a  candidate  we  believe  to  be  unworthy.  But,  hap- 
pily, all  the  great  principles,  to  maintain  which  the  Republican  party  was  founded,  have 
long  since  been  firmly  established  in  the  legislation  of  the  country. 

The  Maine  Windmill. 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Blaine,  in  his  skillful  letter  of  acceptance,  has  at  last  expressed 
very  positive  opinions  upon  one  subject.  He  has  come  out  as  an  ardent  civil  service 
reformer,  now  that  the  country  has  pronounced  for  the  reform  ;  although  m  the  day 
when  the  cause  was  struggling  and  weak,  it  had  no  assistance  from  this  always  influen- 
tial political  leader.  There  have  been  one  or  two  reactions,  however,  since  then  ;  and 
the  people  have  in  no  uncertain  tones  proclaimed  their  will.  It  is  certainly  the  fact  to-day 
that  political  managers  will  not  openly  oppose  the  popular  demand,  and  no  backward 
steps  will  be  taken  in  extending  and  maintaining  the  reform. 

We  have  not  taken  the  decided  action  that  brings  us  here  to-day  without  some  remon- 
strances from  our  party  associates.  They  have  urged  upon  us  the  claims  of  the  old 
organization  and  have  rung  the  changes  upon  its  achievements.  They  have  told  us  that 
the  great  results  of  the  war  would  be  jeopardized  if  the  Democratic  party  should  come 
into  power.  They  have  warned  us  that  capital  would  be  destroyed  and  labor  would  be 
paralyzed  if  there  should  be  a  discontinuance  of  Republican  administration.  They  have 
said  that  Mr.  Blaine  should  be  chosen  President  because  he  would  do  what  other  Presi- 
dents have  not  done  and  what  he  alone  can  do,  and  that  is  to  make  his  country  respected 
by  foreign  nations.    To  all  such  suggestions,  we  have  been  impervious. 

We  have  replied  that  the  constitutional  interpretations  settled  by  the  war  are  not  dis- 
puted ;  that  the  Democrats,  who  are  at  least  nearly  half  the  people  in  the  country,  have  no 
desire,  and  can  have  no  interest,  to  check  the  national  prosperity  ;  and  that  this  country 
is  respected  throughout  the  world  for  its  power,  its  freedom,  its  energy,  and  its  resources, 
and  that  it  will  continue  to  be  so  respected,  unless  some  "  aggressive  "  and  "  magnetic" 
President  shall  succeed  in  making  it  ridiculous.  There  has  not  been  much  in  such  con- 
siderations as  these  to  induce  us  to  give  our  support  to  a  discredited  and  obnoxious 
candidate. 

But  an  appeal  has  also  been  made  to  our  sympathies  and  to  our  highest  sense  of 
justice, 


282  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 

Democracy  not  Responsible. 

Are  we  ready,  it  has  been  asked,  to  justify  or  condone  such  incidents  as  the  Copiah 
massacre  ?  Will  we  ally  ourselves  with  a  political  party  that  carries  elections  by  mur- 
ders and  intimidation. 

I  answer  that  I  believe  we  yield  to  none  in  our  abhorrence  of  the  affair  at  Copiah.  It 
was  an  outrage  utterly  without  justification,  and  it  is  an  infinite  disgrace  to  the  community 
that  tolerated  it.  Nor  will  we  ally  ourselves  to  a  party  that  carries  elections  by  murder 
and  intimidation;  but  before  all  things,  we  will  be  just,  and  we  will  not  charge  the  whole 
South  or  the  whole  Democratic  party  with  the  responsibility  of  an  act  that  belongs  to  one 
small  community  alone. 

Our  Republican  critics  know  perfectly  well — there  are  no  men  in  the  country  that 
know  it  better — that  these  occurrences  could  not  have  been  prevented  by  any  action  of 
the  Federal  Government.  If  they  could,  how  does  it  happen  that  during  two  Republican 
administrations  there  has  been  no  attempt  at  Federal  interference  ?  And  why  is  it  that 
no  Republican  politician  ventures  to  recommend  such  interference  ?  No,  gentlemen,  the 
truth  is  that  time  and  education  and  enlightened  self-interest  and  the  influence  of  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity  are  the  agencies  that  must  be  relied  upon  to  prevent  these  crimes; 
and,  if  we  may  judge  the  future  by  the  past,  we  may  expect  that,  at  no  distant  period, 
the  barbarous  ideas  and  practices  which  slavery  has  left  as  a  legacy  to  the  South  will  yield 
to  these  benign  influences.  No  one  can  deny,  and  no  one  ought  to  fail  to  rejoice,  that 
such  incidents  as  that  at  Copiah,  which  were  once  common,  are  now  exceptional;  and 
that  the  two  races  which  an  over-ruling  Providence  has  placed  side  by  side  in  the  Southern 
States  are  approaching — under  the  influence  of  universal  freedom,  of  equal  political  rights, 
and  a  wider  diffusion  of  knowledge — a  better  understanding  of  and  a  more  generous  con- 
sideration for  each  other. 

No  Dust  in  Their  Eyes. 

But,  however  that  may  be,  we  are  not  to  be  turned  from  what  seems  to  us  a  plain  and 
obvious  duty  by  an  attempt  to  appeal  to  any  sectional  feeling;  or  even  to  our  sense  of  the 
wickedness  of  men  or  communities  for  whom  we  are  not  responsible.  We  shall  not  give 
up  our  right  to  condemn  and  denounce  lawlessness  and  oppression  in  the  South  any  more 
than  our  right  to  condemn  political  dishonesty  in  the  North.  We  shall  exercise  both  of 
these  rights.  We  shall  not  support  Mr.  Blame,  nor  shall  we  support  any  man  who  justifies 
the  Copiah  murder,  if  indeed  such  a  man  be  found  for  whom  any  one  would  ask  the 
suffrages  of  the  people.  We  respect  the  convictions  of  others  ;  but,  for  ourselves,  we  say 
that  it  is  just  as  impossible  for  us  to  support  Mr.  Blaine  as  it  is  to  lie  or  to  steal. 

We  are  assembled  here  to-day  to  confer  together  and  to  consider  what  practical  action 
we  shall  take.  We  have  one  purpose  in  view,  and  as  reasonable  men  we  desire  to  act 
together.  But  we  shall  not,  I  think,  make  any  attempt  to  demand  pledges  or  to  bind 
consciences.  Whatever  is  done  here,  every  man  is  free  to  follow  his  own  course.  No 
pledges  will  be  asked,  and  certainly  none  will  be  given 

For  myself,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Blaine  should  be  compassed 
by  all  honorable  means.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  cause  of  good  government,  of  pure 
politics,  of  American  character,  requires  it  to  be  done.  There  is  but  one  way  to  do  it, 
and  that  way  must  be  obvious  to  us  all.  We  desire,  first  of  all,  a  President  who  is  incor- 
ruptible ;  and,  if,  besides  that,  he  is  able  and  independent,  so  much  the  better. 

The  Man  to  Pin  Faith  To. 

We  have  not  far  to  go  to  find  a  man  who  is  all  this.  It  has  been  said  recently  by 
some  of  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Blaine  that  no  Democratic  President  was  ever  able  to  resist 
the  pressure  of  party  managers.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  true,  and  possibly  some  Republi- 
can Presidents  have  been  open  to  the  same  criticism  ;  but  there  is  certainly  one  Demo- 
cratic official  who  has  shown  the  ability  to  successfully  resist  all  pressure  that  would 
interfere  with  the  faithful  performance  of  official  duty,  and  he  is  now  Governor  of  New 
York  and  the  Democratic  candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States — a  man  whose 
utterances  and  whose  acts,  whether  as  Mayor  or  Governor,  have  proved  that  he  holds 
office,  not  for  personal  ends,  but  as  a  trust  for  the  people,  whose  servant  he  is.  As  a 
lifelong  opponent  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  with  no  intention  now  of  becoming 
identified  with  it,  I  will  yet  rejoice,  and  I  will  say  that  it  is  fortunate  for  the  Republic, 
that,  at  a  crisis  when  the  party  which  has  been  the  party  of  progress  halts  and  is  unfaith- 
ful, the  party  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  distrust  shows  wise  intelligence  and 
civic  courage.  It  has  risen  to  its  great  opportunity  ;  and  those  Republicans  who  would 
make  effectual  opposition  to  a  candidate  they  believe  to  be  unfit  can  with  no  loss  of  self- 
respect,  without  surrendering  a  conviction,  and  in  the  exercise  of  the  highest  political 
expediency,  give  their  votes  to  the  reform  Governor  of  New  York. 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  283 

Let  us,  then,  in  a  vigorous  and  business-like  way,  proceed  to  the  work  before  us.  Let 
us  take  steps  to  lay  before  the  country  the  evidence  that  has  convinced  us  that  the  Repub- 
lican nomination  for  President  was  unfit  to  be  made.  It  is  all  contained  in  the  official 
record  of  the  National  Legislature  and  it  is  the  common  property  of  all  the  people.  Let 
us  declare  that  we  stand  together,  and  that  we  ask  our  fellow  citizens  to  join  us  to  make 
our  protest  effectual  against  corruption  in  office.  Let  us  try  to  impress  upon  the  voters 
by  our  words  and  acts  that  political  straightforwardness  is  better  than  political  success  ; 
and,  when  we  have  done  our  work  here,  let  us  go  to  our  homes,  and  use  such  influence 
as  we  have  to  further  the  cause  which  we  conceive  to  be  the  cause  of  our  country. 

Mr.  Curtis'  Address. 

On  the  same  occasion  George  William  Curtis,  of  the  New  York  Independents, 
spoke  as  follows : 

The  paramount  issue  of  the  Presidential  election  of  this  year  is  moral  rather  than 
political.  It  concerns  the  national  honor  and  character  and  honesty  of  administration 
rather  than  general  policies  of  government,  upon  which  the  platforms  of  the  two  parties 
do  not  essentially  differ.  No  position  taken  by  one  platform  is  seriously  traversed  by  the 
other.  Both  evidently  contemplate  a  general  agreement  of  public  opinion  upon  subjects 
which  have  been  long  in  controversy  and  indicate  an  unwillingness  to  declare  upon  other 
and  cardinal  questions  views  which,  in  the  present  condition  of  opinion,  might  seriously 
disturb  the  parties  within  themselves.  Parties,  indeed,  now  cohere  mainly  by  habit  and 
tradition,  and  since  the  great  issues  which  have  divided  them  have  been  largely  settled, 
the  most  vital  political  activity  has  been  the  endeavor  of  good  citizens  in  both  parties  to 
adjust  them  to  living  issues  and  to  make  them  effective  agencies  of  political  progress  and 
reform. 

The  indispensable  necessity  of  this  course  has  been  long  apparent,  for  in  a  time 
of  profound  peace  at  home  and  abroad  the  most  threatening  national  peril  is  an  insidious 
political  corruption,  a  mercenary  and  demoralizing  spirit  and  tendency,  the  result  of  which 
is  well  described  by  Senator  Hoar,  of  Ma  sachusetts,  as  "the  shameless  doctrine  that  the 
true  way  by  which  power  should  be  gained  in  the  Republic  is  to  bribe  the  people  with 
the  offices  created  for  their  service,  and  the  true  end  for  which  it  should  be  used  when 
gained  is  the  promotion  of  selfish  ambition  and  the  gratification  of  personal  revenge.  " 

But  this  doctrine  naturally  has  produced  results  which  are  still  more  alarming.  The 
corrupt  spirit  and  tendency  have  so  rapidly  developed,  that  they  seek  political  power  not 
only  to  gratify  ambition  and  revenge  but  to  promote  private  gam.  They  deride 
appeals  to  the  public  conscience,  defend  the  soiled  reputations  of  public  men  by  the 
bold  assertion  that  all  public  men  are  equally  guilty,  declare  that  success  in  obtaining 
eminent  position  disposes  of  every  imputation  and  suspicion  of  wrongdoing,  and  despising 
all  practical  measures  to  reform  the  system  of  official  patronage  which  fosters  dishonest 
politics,  make  a  great  party  nominally  responsible  for  prolonged  and  monstrous  fraud, 
and  proclaim  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen  who  for  great  and  beneficial  ends  has 
habitually  supported  a  party  to  regard  the  success  of  the  party  at  an  election,  without 
regard  to  the  character  of  those  whom  it  selects*as  its  executive  agents,  to  be  a  supreme 
national  necessity.  A  tendency  more  fatal  to  the  public  welfare  cannot  be  conceived, 
and  when  by  public  indifference  or  misundestanding  this  corrupt  spirit  is  able  to  demand 
that  the  country  shall  approve  it  by  according  to  it  the  highest  honor  in  its  gift,  every 
patriotic  citizen  must  perceive  that  no  duty  could  be  more  pressing,  vital  and  imperative 
than  that  of  baffling  and  defeating  the  demand. 

If  the  Republican  Convention  has  presented  a  candidate  whose  character  and  career 
were  the  pledge  of  a  resolute  contest  with  the  tendencies  that  we  have  described  ;  if  they 
had  foretold  a  stern  dealing  with  political  corruption  and  a  vigorous  correction  of  the  vast 
abuses  which  the  long  and  undisturbed  tenure  of  power  by  any  party  is  sure  to  breed  ;  if 
the  success  of  the  candidate  had  promised  inflexible  honesty  of  administration,  purifica- 
tion of  the  Government,  and  elevation  of  the  party  standard,  every  Republican  voter 
would  have  gladly  supported  the  nomination.  But  these  are  precisely  the  anticipations 
which  the  nomination  forbids.  It  offers  a  candidate  who  is  an  unfit  leader,  shown  by  his 
own  words  and  acknowledged  acts,  which  are  of  official  record,  to  be  unworthy  of  respect 
and  confidence ;  who  has  traded  upon  his  official  trust  for  his  pecuniary  gain  ;  a  repre- 
sentative of  men,  methods  and  conduct,  which  the  public  conscience  condemns,  and  which 
illustrate  the  very  evils  that  honest  men  would  reform. 

Such  a  nomination  does  not  promise  in  the  Executive  chair  inflexible  official  integrity, 
calm  and  wise  judgement,  a  sole  regard  for  the  public  welfare,  and  an  unshrinking 
determination  to  promote  reform  in  the  civil  service,  and  ceaselessly  to  pursue  and  punish 
public  robbers  of  every  kind  and  degree.      Independent  voters  have  generally  supported 


284  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 

Republican  nominations  as  more  surely  promising  reform  than  those  of  the  Democratic 
Party.  Independents,  however,  cannot  support  a  nomination  which  is  the  culmination  of 
the  tendency  that  they  would  correct.  Republicans  cannot  hope  that  under  such  lead- 
ership as  we  have  mentioned  the  abuses  of  the  past  can  be  corrected  or  the  party  reformed. 
We  are  very  proud  of  the  great  record  aud  services  of  the  Republican  party,  but  not  with 
our  consent  and  connivance  shall  that  record  be  disgraced. 

Every  party  must  be  constantly  renewed  by  the  intelligent  independence  of  its  own 
members,  or  it  will  sink  from  an  agency  to  secure  good  government  into  a  remorseless 
despotism.  The  Republican  party  sprang  from  a  moral  sentiment.  It  was  the  party  of 
political  morality  and  of  personal  liberty.  It  appealed  directly  to  the  conscience  of  the 
citizen.  But,  like  all  parties,  it  was  a  political  agency  not  to  be  worshipped,  but  to  be 
carefully  held  to  the  spirit  and  purposes  on  which  and  for  which  it  was  organized.  "I 
do  not  know,"  said  Mr.  Seward,  thirty  years  ago,  when  he  left  the  Whig  party  to  join 
the  Republican  :  "I  do  not  know  that  it  will  always  or  even  long  preserve  its  courage, 
its  moderation,  and  its  consistency.  If  it  shall  do  so,  it  will  secure  and  save  the  country. 
If  it  shall  become  unfaithful,  as  all  preceding  parties  have  done,  it  will,  without  sorrow 
or  regret  on  my  part,  perish  as  they  are  perishing,  and  will  give  place  to  another,  truer, 
and  better  one." 

This  warning  must  not  he  forgotten.  It  is  with  a  profound  conviction  of  its  wis- 
dom that  Republicans  faithful  to  their  party,  but  holding,  with  the  great  Republican 
fathers,  that  political  morality  and  purity  of  administration  are  more  precious  than  party, 
are  now  constrained  to  oppose  the  Republican  Presidential  nomination  in  the  interest  of 
what  they  believe  to  be  pure  republicanism,  of  the  public  welfare,  and  of  the  honor  of 
the  American  name. 

The  Republic  nomination  has  for  the  time  superseded  all  other  issues  by  raising  the 
question  of  official  honesty.  This  question  cannot  be  avoided  except  upon  the  plea  that  the 
official  character  of  candidates  need  not  be  considered,  and  that  in  order  to  secure  a  party 
President  the  members  of  a  party  ought  to  vote  for  any  candidate  whatever  who  has  been 
regularly  nominated.  This  is  a  plea  beyond  which  party  madness  cannot  go.  Acqui- 
escence in  it  would  require  the  surrender  of  the  self-respect  of  every  voter.  There  could 
be  no  candidate  so  unfit  that  this  plea  would  not  demand  his  support,  and  Republican 
success  justified  by  an  argument  which  defies  the  public  conscience,  would  be  the 
overthrow  of  the  vital  principle  of  the  party,  and  show  that  the  spirit  and  character 
which  created  its  great  traditions  are  rapidly  perishing. 

Upon  the  practical  questions  of  tariff  and  finance,  and  other  questions  upon  which  both 
parties  are  divided  within  themselves,  we  also  are  divided  in  opinion.  We  shall  vote, 
therefore,  in  the  choice  of  representatives  in  Congress  and  other  officers,  according  to 
our  individual  opinions  of  their  political  views  and  their  personal  character.  Divided  on 
other  questions,  we  are  united  in  conviction  that  the  fountain  of  office  and  honor  should 
be  pure  and  that  the  highest  office  in  the  country  should  be  filled  by  a  man  of  abso- 
lutely unsuspected  integrity. 

As  there  is  no  distiactive  issue  upon  public  policy  presented  for  the  consideration  of  the 
country,  the  character  of  the  candidates  becomes  of  the  highest  importance  with  all 
citizens  who  do  not  hold  that  party  victory  should  be  secured  at  any  cost.  While  the 
Republican  nomination  presents  a  candidate  whom  we  cannot  support,  the  Democratic 
party  presents  one  whose  name  is  the  synonym  of  political  courage  and  honesty 
and  of  administrative  reform.  He  has  discharged  every  official  trust  with  sole 
regard  to  the  public  welfare  and  with  just  disregard  of  mere  partisan  and  personal 
advantage,  which,  with  the  applause  and  confidence  of  both  parties,  have  raised 
him  from  the  chief  executive  administration  of  a  great  city  to  that  of  a  great 
State.  His  unreserved,  intelligent,  and  sincere  support  of  reform  in  the  civil  service 
has  firmly  established  that  reform  in  the  State  and  the  cities  of  New  York  ;  and  his 
personal  convictions,  proved  by  his  official  acts  more  decisive  than  any  possible  platform 
declaration,  are  the  guarantee  that  in  its  spirits  and  in  its  letter  the  reform  would  be 
enforced  in  the  National  Administration.  His  high  sense  of  public  duty,  his  absolute  and 
unchallenged  official  integrity,  his  inflexible  courage  in  resisting  party  pressure  and 
public  outcry,  his  great  experience  in  the  details  of  administration,  and  his  commanding 
executive  ability  and  independence,  are  precisely  the  qualities  which  the  political  situation 
demands  in  the  chief  executive  officer  of  the  Government  to  resist  corporate  monopoly  on 
the  one  hand  and  demagogue  Communism  on  the  other,  and  at  home  and  abroad,  without 
menace  or  fear,  to  protect  every  right  of  American  citizens  and  to  respect  every  right  of 
friendly  States  by  making  political  morality  and  private  honesty  the  basis  of  constitutional 
administration. 

He  is  a  Democrat  who  is  happily  free  from  all  association  with  the  fierce  party  differ- 
ences of  the  slavery  contest,  and  whose  financial  views  are  in  harmony  with  those  of  the 
best  men  in  both  parties.    Coming  into  public  prominence  at  a  time  when  official  purity,, 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  285 

courage,  and  character  are  of  chief  importance,  he  presents  the  qualities  and  the  promise 
which  independent  voters  desire  and  which  a  great  body  of  Republicans,  believing  those 
qualities  to  be  absolutely  indispensable  in  the  administration  of  the  Government  at  this 
time,  do  not  find  in  the  candidate  of  their  own  party. 

Such  independent  voters  do  not  propose  to  ally  themselves  inextricably  with  any 
party.  Such  Republicans  do  not  propose  to  abandon  the  Republican  party  nor  to  merge 
themselves  in  any  other  party,  but  they  do  propose  to  aid  in  defeating  a  Republican 
nomination  which,  not  for  reasons  of  expediency  only,  but  for  high  moral  and  patriotic 
considerations,  with  a  due  regard  for  the  Republican  name  and  for  the  American  charac- 
ter, was  unfit  to  be  made.  They  desire  not  to  evade  the  proper  responsibility  of  American 
citizens  by  declining  to  vote,  and  they  desire  also  to  make  their  votes  as  effective  as 
possible  for  honest  and  pure  and  wise  administration. 

How  can  such  voters,  who  at  this  election  cannot  conscientiously  support  the  Repub- 
lican candidate,  promote  the  objects  which  they  desire  to  accomplish  more  surely  than 
by  supporting  the  candidate  who  represents  the  qualities,  the  spirit,  and  the  purpose 
which  they  all  agree  in  believing  to  be  of  controlling  importance  in  this  election  ?  No 
citizen  can  rightfully  avoid  the  issue  or  refuse  to  cast  his  vote.  The  ballot  is  a  trust. 
Every  voter  is  a  trustee  for  good  government,  bound  to  answer  to  his  private  conscience 
for  his  public  acts.  This  conference,  therefore,  assuming  that  Republicans  and  indepen- 
dent voters,  who  for  any  reason  cannot  sustain  the  Republican  nomination  desire  to  take 
the  course  which,  under  the  necessary  conditions  and  constitutional  methods  of  a  Presi- 
dential election,  will  most  readily  and  surely  secure  the  result  at  which  they  aim,  respect- 
fully recommends  to  all  such  citizens  to  support  the  Electors  who  will  vote  for  Grover 
Cleveland  in  order  most  effectually  to  enforce  their  conviction  that  noching  could  more 
deeply  stain  the  American  name  and  prove  more  disastrous  to  the  public  welfare  than 
the  deliberate  indifference  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  increasing  public  corrup- 
tion and  to  the  want  of  official  integrity  in  the  highest  trusts  of  the  Government. 

Mr.  Schurz's  Address. 

At  a  meeting  at  the  Grand  Opera  House,  in  Brooklyn,  August  5th,  Carl  Schurz, 

who  had  been  invited  to  present  his  views  on  the  issues  of  the  campaign,  delivered 

an  exhaustive  and  memorable  argument,  from  which  we  reproduce  the  following 

portions : 

Fellow-Citizens  :  In  obedience  to  the  invitation  with  which  I  have  been  honored, 
I  stand  here  in  behalf  of  Republicans  opposing  the  presidential  candidates  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  You  may  well  believe  me  when  I  say  that  it  is  no  pleasure  to  me  to  enter 
upon  a  campaign  like  this.  But  a  candid  statement  of  our  reasons  for  the  step  we  have 
taken  is  due  to  those  whose  companionship  in  the  pending  contest  we  have  left.  It  is, 
therefore,  to  Republicans  that  I  address  myself.  I  shall,  of  course,  not  waste  any  words 
upon  politicians  who  follow  the  name  of  the  party,  right  or  wrong  ;  but  to  the  men  of  reason 
and  conscience  will  I  appeal,  who  loved  their  party  for  the  good  ends  it  was  serving, 
and  who  were  faithful  to  it  in  the  same  measure  as  it  was  faithful  to  the  honor  and  the 
true  interests  of  the  Republic.  Let  them  hear  me,  and  then  decide  whether  the  same 
fidelity  will  not  irresistibly  lead  them  where  we  stand  now. 

The  Tariff  not  the  Issue. 

At  the  threshold  I  have  to  meet  a  misapprehension  of  our  motives.  It  has  been  said, 
and,  I  suppose,  believed  by  some,  that  we  were  dissatisfied  with  the  Republican  party 
because  its  present  candidates  were  protectionists.  This  is  easily  answered.  Is  Senator 
Edmunds,  of  Vermont,  a  free  trader  ?  On  the  contrary,  he  is  well  known  to  be  as 
strong  a  protectionist  as  any  member  of  the  Senate.  And  who  among  the  candidates 
before  the  Republican  National  Convention  was  the  favorite  of  the  same  "independent 
Republicans "  now  opposing  the  Republican  nominations?  The  same  Senator  Ed- 
munds. Why  was  he  their  favorite  ?  Because  he  was  thoroughly  trusted  as  an  honest 
man  who  could  be  depended  upon  to  be  faithful  to  those  moral  principles  and  political 
methods  the  observance  of  which  would  make  and  keep  the  Government  honest.  There 
was  the  decisive  point.  We  should  have  supported  other  Republican  candidates  even  of 
less  prominence  and  of  less  ability  than  Mr.  Edmunds  possesses,  no  matter  whether  they 
were  as  strong  protectionists  as  he,  provided  they  satisfied  that  one  fundamental  require- 
ment of  unimpeachable,  positive,  and  active  integrity  This  is  a  fact  universally  known 
which  no  candid  man  will  question.  What,  then,  has  the  tariff  question  to  do  with  the 
^motives  of  our  opposition  ?     Nothing  at  all.     And  if  any  of  those  to   whom  these  pres- 


286  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 

ents  may  come  still  assert  that  the  tariff  is  the  moving  cause  of  our  action,  they  convict 
themselves  of  being  afraid  of  the  real  reasons  which  govern  us,  and  of  seeking  artfully  to 
deceive  the  people  about  them.  So  far,  it  may  have  been  a  mistake  ;  now  it  will  be  a  lie. 
Undoubtedly  the  tariff  is  an  interesting  and  important  subject;  so  is  the  currency; 
so  is  the  bank  question  ;  so  is  the  Mormon  question  ;  so  are  many  others.  At  other 
times  they  might  absorb  our  attention.  But  this  time  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion has,  with  brutal  directness,  so  that  we  must  face  it  whether  we  will  or  not,  forced 
upon  the  country  another  issue,  wdiich  is  infinitely  more  important,  because  it  touches 
the  vitality  of  our  institutions.  It  is  the  question  of  honesty  in  government.  I  say  the 
Republican  Convention  has  forced  it  upon  the  country,  not  by  platform  declarations, 
but  by  nominating  for  the  Presidency  a  man  with  a  blemished  public  record.  Under- 
stand me  fully.  The  question  is  not  merely  whether  Mr.  Blame,  if  elected  notwith- 
standing his  past  career,  would  or  would  not  give  the  country  a  comparatively  honest 
Administration.  The  question  is  much  larger  than  that.  It  is,  whether  the  public 
record  of  the  Republican  candidate  is  not  such  as  to  make  his  election  by  the  American' 
people  equivalent  to  a  declaration  on  their  part  that  honesty  will  no  longer  be  one  of  the 
requirements  of  the  government  of  the  Republic.  It  is,  whether  such  a  declaration  will 
not  have  the  inevitable  effect  of  sinking  the  Government  for  generations  to  come,  per- 
haps forever,  into  a  depth  of  demoralization  and  corruption  such  as  we  have  never 
dreamed  of  before.  If  this  is  really  the  issue  of  the  pending  campaign,  then  you  will 
admit  it  to  be  the  most  momentous  that  has  been  upon  us  since  the  civil  war  ;  nay,  as. 
momentous  as  any  involved  in  the  civil  war  itself. 

If  you  want  to  know  what  the  result  of  Mr.  Blaine's  election  would  be,  stop  and 
observe  what  the  result  of  his  mere  nomination  already  has  been.  What  do  you  see  ? 
Men  high  in  standing,  who  but  yesterday  were  shocked  at  such  things  as  Mr.  Blaine  has 
done,  who  thought  that  the  people  would  and  ought  to  brand  them  with  their  emphatic 
disapproval,  now  meekly  apologizing  for  the  same  things  and  dismissing  them  as  little 
eccentricities  of  genius.  Nay,  some  of  them  grow  fairly  facetious  at  the  "  Pharisees," 
or  "  saints,"  or  "  dudes,"  or  "  gentle  hermits"  who  denounce  corruption  to-day  as  they 
themselves  denounced  it  yesterday.  Indeed,  "  Pharisees  "  and  "saints."  What,  then, 
are  the  strange  and  extravagant  things  which  these  Pharisees  and  saints  demand,  and 
which  after  Mr.  Blaine's  nomination  have  suddenly  become  so  ridiculous  ?  Do  they  ask 
that  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  should  be  the  ideal  man  and  the  embodiment  of  all 
the  human  virtues  ?  That  he  should  part  his  hair  in  the  middle  and  wear  lavender- 
gloves?  No,  not  that.  But  these  strange  creatures,  these  "Pharisees  "  and  "dudes," 
insist  that  a  man  to  be  elected  President  of  the  United  States  should  be  a  man  of 
integrity  ;  that  he  should  have  a  just  sense  of  official  honor  ;  that  he  should  not  be  one 
with  a  record  of  prostituted  official  power,  such  as  the  Mulligan  letters  and  the  investiga- 
tion show,  upon  his  back.  That  is  all.  Why,  how  ridiculous  this  is,  to  be  sure.  Have 
you  ever  heard  anything  so  outlandish  ? 

Well,  fellow-citizens,   when  you  see  grave  men,   men  of  public  standing,  suddenly 

disposed  to  laugh  at  other  men  who  to-day  refuse  to  honor  bad  practices  which  yesterday 

they  all   in  common  condemned,   it  is  not  altogether  amusing.      It  is  a  rather  serious 

symptom  of  the  moral  effect  Mr.  Blaine's  mere  nomination  has  already  produced.     But. 

it  is  only  one  of  many. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

There  is  corruption  enough  now.  But  when  the  American  people  shall  have 
proclaimed  that  they  care  nothing  for  a  proper  sense  of  honor  in  their  public  men  and 
the  public  service,  then  a  crop  of  corruption  and  demoralization  will  ripen  such  as  we 
have  never  dreamed  of.  You  complain  now  that  the  money  kings  and  the  great 
corporations  have  too  much  power  in  our  public  concerns.  But  when  the  American, 
people  by  a  solemn  popular  election  shall  have  taught  our  politicians,  young  and  old, 
that  they  can  make  themselves  rich  by  the  prostitution  of  official  trust  without  fear  of 
disgrace,  that  they  may  have  pelf  and  public  honor  at  the  same  time,  there  will  be  no 
limit  to  the  corrupting  power  of  wealth,  and  your  dreaded  money  kings  and  corpor- 
ations will  do  in  open  daylight  what  they  now  attempt  in  the  dark.  Corruption  will 
irresistibly  "broaden  down  from  precedent  to  precedent."  Its  flood  may  overwhelm 
all  that  we  hold  dear  and  are  proud  of  to-day. 

Citizens  of  the  United  States,  I  warn  you  solemnly  not  to  take  this  fatal  leap.. 
The  honor  of  the  American  people,  the  vitality  of  our  institutions,  the  whole  future  of 
the  Republic  are  involved  in  the  issue.  Do  you  want  to  protect  that  honor,  to  save 
those  institutions  from  deadly  rot  and  the  future  of  the  Republic  from  incalculable  disaster 
and  disgrace  ?  There  is  but  one  thing  to  do.  If  a  political  party,  however  great  and 
glorious,  has  been  so  forgetful  of  its  dignity  and  its  duty  as  to  nominate  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency  conspicuously  bearing  the  fatal  taint,  then  the  American  people  must. 


mmm 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  2g7 

show  that  they  have  moral   sense  enough  to  reject  him,  and  to  reject  him  overwhelm 
ingly.      That  is  the  way  of  salvation.      There  is  no  other 

******** 
This  is  not  the  cause  of  a  mere  party.    It  is  greater  than  any  party.    It  is  in  th* 
broadest  sense  the  cause  of  the  people,  the  cause  of  all  classes  and  honorable  occupations 
alike     It  speaks  the  language  of  interest  and  says  to  our  merchants  and  business  men 
You  know  that  the  successful  working  of  commerce  and  trade  hangs  upon  trust  between 
man  and  man.    \  ou  need  credit  as  a  nation  as  you  need  confidence  between  individuals 
It  you  discover  that  a  managing   man  in  your  business  is  in  secret  concert  with  anv  of 
your  customers  and  uses  the  opportunities  of  his  position  for  his  own  personal  profit    vou 
confide  in  him  no  longer,  but  you  discharge  him.    If  you  learn  that   the  cashier  of'vour 
bank  so  uses   the  opportunities  of  his  place,  you  distrust  the   institution  and  withdraw 
your  deposits.    What  will  you  think  of  yourselves,  what  will  the  world  think  of  vour 
business  judgment  and  your  sense  of  honesty,  if  in  something  far  greater  than  your  shoo 
or  your  bank,  if  m  the  government  of  your  country  you  promote  the  man  who  has  done 
this  to  the  highest  place  of  honor  and  trust  ?     You  complain  that  the  credit  of  our  raa? 
enterprises  has  most  injuriously  suffered  at  home  and  abroad  by  the  unscrupulous  tnVK 
of  the  inside  rings  in  corporate  management.    How  will  it  be  if  you  ?ive    the  solemn 
ReCubUcf  y°Ur  V°teS  t0  S°mething  akin  t0  the  same  Practice  in  *e  Government  of  the 
This  is  the  cause  of  labor   and  says  to  the  workingmen  :  What  you  need  above  all 
thmgs  is  a  government  of  just  laws  and  of  honest  men  to  execute  the  laws     You  need 
men  who  have  the  conscience  and  courage  to  say  "No"  to  you  when    the  law  forbid* 
hat  which  you  may  ask  for  ;  for  such  men  will  have  the  conscience  and  courage  to  say 
No     to  those  more  powerful  than  you  when  they  ask  for  what  is  unjust  and  injurious 

n7™  r^n  u  lr?  tmTgUe  Wh°  the  m°re  he  flatters  y°u  wit«  promises  to  day 
the  more  he  will  be  likely  to  betray  you  to-morrow.  Beware  of  the  political  jobber  for 
in  the  very  nature  of  things  he  is  always  the  monopolist's  own  pet  and  bedfellow  How 
C.uJ°U'  ii°nn§  mun'S°  bfray  your  own  interests  as  to  support  a  candidate  whose 
election  will  mean  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  American  people  jobbery  in  the  Govern 
ment  is  a  legitimate  occupation  not  to  be  punished,  but  to  be  honored  ? 

This  is  the  cause  of  patriotism  and  national  pride,  and  it  says  to  every  citizen  of  the 
Republic  :  Do  you  want  the  wor  d  abroad  to  respect  the  American  name  ?  Then  show 
them  first  that  the  American  people  respect  themselves.  The  American  people  will  show 
how  they  respect  themselves  by  the  choice  they  make  for  their  highest  honors.  Ask 
yourselves,  Americans,  how  this  Republic  will  stand  in  the  esteem  of  mankind,  and  how 
its  influence  will  be  upheld  by  the  confidence  of  nations  if  the  American  people  by  I 
solemn  vote  proclaim  to  the  world  that  official  honor  is  to  them  a  thing  of  indifference 
and  hat  they  select  their  President  from  among  those  who  have  traded  on  high  official 
trust  to  make  money.  5        ULWJ 

.And  in  the  face  of  all  this  still  the  cry  of  "Party  !  "      Woe  to   the   republic  whose 
ciazens  think  of  party  and  nothing  but  party  when  the  honor  of  their  country  and  the 
vitality  of  their  Government  are   at  stake.     But,  happily,  what    an  impotent  cry  it  is  to 
these  days      Look  around  you  and  see  what  is  going  on.     The  time  of  a  new  migration 
of  political  forces  seems  to  have  come.     The  elements  are  restlessly  moving,  in  all  direc- 
tions breaking  through  the  barriers  of  old  organizations.     Here  they  march,  and  there 
some  with  uncertain  purposes,  crossing  one  another's  paths  and  sometimes  even  their 
°W?t;         ?  1°U bt  °ne  °f  the  candldates  of  the  two  great  parties  will  be  President       But 
neither   of  the    two    parties,   when  it  issues    from  the  struggle,    will  be   what  "it  was- 
before.     This  is  the  disorder  which  evolves  new  energies,  for  good  or  for  evil      Such  are 
periods  of  promise,  but  also  of  danger.     What  will  come  we  ?annot  foresee.     But  in  the 
confusion  that  surrounds  us  it  is  the  part  of  patriotic  men  to  stand    together  with  clear 
heads  and  one  firm  purpose.       The  duty   is   plain.       It  is  to  see  to  it  that,  whatever  the 
future  may  build  up,  its  foundations  at  least  be  kept  sound  ;  that  the  honor  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  be  preserved  intact,  and  that  all  political  parties,  new  or  old,  become  forever 
impressed  with  the  utter  hopelessness  of  any  attempt   to  win  success  without  respecting 
that  vital  condition  of  our  greatness  and  glory,  which  is  honest  government. 

Independent  Press  on  Blaine. 

{New  York  Herald,  June  7.] 

Finally  the  great  agony  is  over,  and  Mr.  Blaine  is  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 

&    £       w  u    lrlSldent  °l the  United  States-     We  are  sorry  for  it,  and  we  believe 

the  Republicans  will  all  be  sorry  for  it  next  November.    But  although  every  man  who  cares 
for  the  purity  of  public  life  and  the  welfare  of  the  country,  and  especially  all  those  who 


288  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 

hoped  for  the  redemption  of  the  Republican  party  from  the  evil  elements  that  have  already 
nearly  dragged  it  down  the  depths,  must  poignantly  regret  a  nomination  like  this,  yet 
there  has  grown  within  a  day  or  two  in  many  circles  a  sentiment  that  will  regard  the  nomi- 
nation with  a  certain  grim  sense  of  satisfaction.  Indignation  of  decent  opinion  at  the 
ever-recurring  nuisance  of  the  Blaine  candidacy,  a  revolt  against  the  open  shamelessness 
of  the  Blaine  men  and  their  methods,  and  at  their  scheme  of  carrying  things  with  a  roar 
and  not  by  reason,  has  made  men  feel  that  at  last  there  was  perhaps  but  one  cure  for  all 
this,  which  was  to  have  the  Blaine  element  carry  the  Convention  and  nominate  their  man, 
and  then  see  the  man  and  the  party  buried  out  of  sight  by  an  overwhelming  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  the  people.  All  who  have  felt  that  way  have  their  cure  before  them;  and  they 
may  at  least  congratulate  themselves  that  they  are  now  indeed  in  a  fair  way  to  have  done 
with  Blaine  forever. 

[New  York  Times,  June  8.] 
The  demonstrations  of  welcome  with  which  some  former  Presidential  nominations  have 
been  received  have  been  formal  and  perfunctory,  perhaps.  Mr.  Blaine's  is  the  first  to  be 
received  in  cold  and  disapproving  silence  by  a  large  section  of  the  party  and  with  instant 
protest  and  revolt  by.  another  large  element.  Thousands  of  Republicans  with  whom 
patriotism  is  a  sentiment  enduring  for  life,  while  partisanship  lasts  only  during  the  party's 
good  behavior,  that  is  to  say  the  right-thinking  and  reasonable  men  of  the  party,  are 
asking  themselves  to-day  whether  they  are  now  Republicans,  whether  the  party  they 
belonged  to  and  were  proud  to  serve  any  longer  exists.  Thousands  of  other  Republicans, 
less  firmly  attached  to  the  party,  Republicans  whose  allegiance  is  always  dependent  upon 
good  nominations  and  right  intentions,  are  conferring  one  with  another  about  the  nomina- 
tion of  an  independent  Republican  ticket  in  opposition  to  Blaine  and  Logan.  The  Re- 
publican party  was  never  brought  to  such  a  pass  before.  The  Liberal  Republican 
episode  of  1872  was  a  summer  shower.  The  party  now  faces  a  "rattling  storm  of 
arrows  barbed  with  fire." 

[From  the  Boston  Advertiser — Rep.~\ 

To  a  large  section  of  the  Republican  party  the  news  that  the  fierce  struggle  at  Chicago 
has  ended  by  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine  will  appear  ominous  of  disaster.  To  them  the 
event  will  mean  that  the  party  of  sound  government  and  of  high  moral  purpose  is 
required  to  abdicate  its  place  as  the  exponent  of  principles  and  to  undertake  the  excul- 
pation of  a  man,  and  to  them  it  will  appear,  as  we  believe,  that  the  decision  of  a 
National  Convention  no  longer  reflects  the  matured  judgment  of  a  great  party  holding 
itself  responsible  for  the  guidance  of  the  nation,  but  is  the  chance  result  of  a  contest  in 
which  intense  ambition,  the  most  degraded  political  methods,  and  the  clamor  of  a  mob 
within  the  hall  of  the  convention  have  had  a  victory.  We  need  not  enter  upon  any 
formal  declaration  of  our  own  entire  agreement  with  those  Republicans  who  thus  fail  to 
find  in  the  nomination  any  fit  expression  of  the  established  principles  and  avowed  aims 
of  the  Republican  party.  The  events  of  the  last  three  days  have  given  us  no  answer  to 
the  objections  so  often  urged  in  these  columns  against  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine  and 
-against  the  course  of  Mr.  Blaine  as  a  public  man,  and  have  presented  no  contingency  in 
which  these  objections  could  be  waived  consistently  with  truth  or  political  honor.  We 
have,  then,  nothing  to  retract  and  nothing  to  modify.  With  unabated  devotion  to  the 
great  purposes  for  which  the  Republican  party  was  organized  and  has  been  maintained, 
we  declare  our  inability  to  support  the  nomination,  either  in  the  present  aspect  of  the 
political  field,  or  in  any  which  now  seems  likely  to  presenc  itself. 

[From  the  Springfield  Republican,  June  7.] 

These  nominations  are  revolutionary.  They  are  such  as  the  Republican  party  has 
never  before  presented,  and  will  carry  dismay  and  alarm  to  thousands  of  men  who  have 
regarded  this  as  the  party  of  safety,  of  integrity,  of  principle,  and  of  high  moral  ends. 
They  portend  deserved  disaster  and  defeat  to  the  Republican  party,  and  a  revolution  in 
the  National  Administration.  Our  readers  will  observe  that  even  among  the  party  press 
the  New  York  Times  and  the  Boston  Advertiser  already  decline  to  support  the  Repub- 
lican ticket. 

[From  New  York  Evening  Post,  June  7.] 

What  is  to  be  the  issue  from  this  deplorable  and  disastrous  but  deliberately  created 
muddle,  it  is  yet  too  soon  to  forecast.  That  Mr.  Blaine  cannot  be  elected,  we  look  on  as 
certain.  Whether  he  can  be  defeated  without  ruining  the  organization  which  is  being 
prostituted  in  the  service  of  his  selfish  ambition  remains  to  be  seen.  The  extent  of  his 
defeat — that  is,  the  size  of  the  majority  which  will  remove  him  permanently  from  the 
political  arena — will  depend  largely  on  the  action  of  the  Democrats.  They  have  now  an 
opportunity  offered  them  such  as  has  not  presented  itself  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 


— . 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  289 

.  *  [From  the  Worcester  (Mass.)  Spy,  June  7.] 

Not  only  was  Mr.  Blaine  the  free  choice  of  the  convention,  but  it  is  safe  to  go  further 
and  say  that  his  nomination  is  acceptable  to  a  considerable  majority  of  the  Republican 
voters  of  the  country.  But  that  does  not  imply  that  his  election  will  be  easy.  No  doubt 
he  will  make  a  "rattling  "  campaign.  There  will  be  plenty  of  crowded  meetings,  ring- 
ing speeches,  and  tremendous  cheering.  But  no  candidate  who  has  been  thought  of  has 
so  many  resolute  opponents  among  men  who  would  gladly  vote  with  the  Republicans  if 
the  Republican  Party  would  give  them  a  candidate  for  whom  they  could  vote  with  a 
good  conscience.  Mr.  Blaine's  admirers  may  think  that  they  are  unreasonable,  obstinate, 
and  prejudiced  ;  that  they  magnify  small  faults  into  inexcusable  offenses  ;  that  they 
make  of  slight  objections  insuperable  obstacles ;  that  they  give  too  much  weight  to  the 
evidence  against  Mr. Blaine's  character,  and  too  little  to  that  in  his  favor;  that  they 
exaggerate  the  personal  aspects  of  the  canvass,  and  do  not  think  enough  of  its  party 
aspects.  All  this  has  been  said  many  times,  and  will  continue  to  be  said  in  varying 
forms  of  expression  and  in  diverse  tones  and  tempers,  in  the  endeavor  to  pursuade  or 
drive  into  the  party  ranks  the  men  who  think  Mr.  Blaine  is  not  a  fit  candidate.  No  doubt 
they  will  prevail  with  some  of  them,  but  there  will  be  a  remnant  whose  votes  will  be 
sorely  needed,  perhaps  will  be  indispensable,  in  the  doubtful  States,  and  especially  in 
New  York.  Unfortunately  the  vote  of  an  enthusiast  goes  no  further  and  counts  for  no 
more  than  that  of  a  quiet  man  without  violent  preferences ;  and,  therefore,  universal 
esteem,  equally  distributed  over  the  whole  country,  is  preferable  to  blazing  enthusiasm  in 
a  majority  of  the  party,  with  a  sprinkling  of  settled  distrust  and  stubborn  hostility. 
What  the  independent  Republicans  can  do  in  New  York  was  proved  in  the  election  of 
1882.  What  they  will  do  this  year  will  be  seen  in  November.  We  should  have  no  pleas- 
ure in  predicting  disaster  to  the  Republican  party,  but  it  is  impossible  now  to  expect 
with  confidence  Mr.  Blaine's  election. 

[From  the  Boston  Herald— Ind.  Rep.~\ 

Believing  that  Mr.  Blaine  would  be  a  bad  and  dangerous  President,  we  hope  to  see 
him  defeated.  Believing  him  to  be  a  weak  candidate,  we  expect  to  see  him  defeated. 
His  zealots  say  he  can  be  elected  without  the  vote  of  New  York.  They  will  have  a  chance 
to  prove  it.  Perhaps  they  think  he  can  be  elected  without  the  help  of  Massachusetts.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  they  may  have  a  chance  to  test  this  also.  If  the  Democrats  rise 
to  the  occasion,  nominate  Governor  Cleveland  and  give  him  an  honest  support  in  his  own 
State,  we  believe  they  will  carry  the  election.  The  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  is  safe  in  the  hands  of  any  majority  of  the  people.  Now. may  be  a  good  time  for 
the  Republican  party  to  step  down  and  out.  The  National  Convention  has  acted  as  if  it 
thought  so. 

[From  the  Chicago  Daily  News — Rep.] 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  the  act  of  the  Convention  has  not  changed  our 
opinion  of  the  man  who  is  now  the  nominee  of  the  Republican  party.  That  act  may 
constitute  in  the  eyes  of  many  a  veritable  political  lethe,  but  we  see  no  reason  to  follow 
those  whose  convictions  are  so  easily  changed.  No  one  has  disproved  the  charges  made 
against  Mr.  Blaine,  nor  have  they  ever  been  withdrawn.  In  short,  he  is  to-day  in  all 
respects  the  same  man  that  he  was  before  the  Convention  assembled. 

[From  the  Philaaelphia  Times — Ind.  ] 

The  sober,  serious  fact  that  Mr.  Blaine's  partisans  must  face  is  that  the  large  body  of 
conservative  citizens  who  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  every  one  of  the  debatable  eastern 

States New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut,  and  even   Massachusetts — profoundly 

distrust  Mr.  Blaine  and  will  not  support  him  for  the  Presidency.  Whether  their  opposition 
be  made  effective  for  his  defeat  will  depend,  of  course,  on  the  alternative  offered  by  the 
Democratic  party  next  month,  but  if  he  be  elected  it  will  be  through  Democratic  folly  and 
not  in  any  case  by  brass  bands. 

[From  the  Buffalo  Commercial — Rep.~\ 
It  would  be  arrant  hypocrisy  for  the  Commercial  to  pretend  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
result  of  the  Chicago  Convention.  *  *  *  The  Commercial  has  freely  criticized  Mr. 
Blaine's  availability  as  a  candidate.  We  have  said  that  we  did  not  believe  he  could  carry 
New  York  State,  and  that  to  elect  him  would  demand  the  utmost  exertions  of  the 
Republican  party.    To  what  we  have  said  we  adhere. 

[Boston  Transcript  (Rep. ),  June  9.] 
The  Republicans  of  the  country  had  a  right  to  expect  that  their  delegates  at  Chicago 
would  place  in  nomination  a  man  for  whose  career  no  explanation  nor  apology  need  be 

19 


290  THE   INDEPENDENT    TIDAL-WAVE. 

made,  pledged  by  his  record  and  present  utterances  to  administrate  reform,  and  whose 
broad  and  conservative  judgment  would  be  a  guarantee  of  domestic  prosperity  and  a 
security  against  the  dangers  of  all  ambitious  and  visionary  policies.  It  is  yet  to  be  seen 
to  what  extent  the  Republicans  throughout  the  country  will  ratify  the  selection  of  the 
convention.  The  effervescence  attending  the  nomination,  when  first  made,  is  visibly  wan- 
ing, although  Mr.  Blame's  campaign,  to  be  a  successful  one,  must  have  the  same  whoop 
and  hurrah  throughout  that  captured  the  Chicago  Convention.  We  do  not  propose  to 
reiterate  the  charge  against  James  G.  Blaine  of  using  public  position  for  private  gain. 
Public  opinion  is  fixed,  we  believe,  as  to  the  truth  of  that  matter.  But  if  this  allegation 
could  be  fully  met  then  there  would  still  remain  Mr.  Blaine's  floundering  course  as  Secre- 
tary of  State,  his  dangerous  diplomacy  while  in  that  office,  and  the  feeling  this  has  pro- 
duced in  the  community  that  his  election  would  give  the  country  a  sensational  rather  than 
a  safe  President. 

\_New  York  Staats  Zeitung.~\ 

We  would  prefer  that  the  country  had  been  spared  the  danger  of  the  election  of  such 
a  President.  It  does  not  occur  to  us  that  Blaine  is  a  weak  character.  His  "  magnetism  " 
is  no  empty  phrase.  When  he  left  Congress  to  become  the  head  of  the  Executive  (for  he  was 
the  only  head  of  the  Garfield  Administration)  he  was  obliged  to  prop  up  his  popularity 
by  a  combative  foreign  policy,  which  should  tickle  the  vanity  of  the  nation,  so  little  did 
he  regard  the  true  interests  of  the  people.  To  this  course  the  man  will  always  adhere, 
no  matter  in  what  position  he  may  be.  He  is  the  boldest,  ablest  representative  of  all  those 
who  fight  for  that  political  power  which  misrepresents  the  people. 

[  Wilmington  News,  {Rep.),  June  io.] 

Those  who  regarded  Blame  as  an  unavailable  candidate  are  already  justified  in  their 
judgment,  their  predictions  and  their  fears.  This  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Republican 
press  and  in  respect  to  the  Republican  candidate  is  startling  by  its  suddenness,  its  deter- 
mination and  its  extent.  It  adds  squarely  before  the  noise  of  the  shouting  at  Chicago  has 
fairly  died  away,  a  new  element  of  uncertainty,  as  to  every  eastern  State  that  has 
hitherto  been  conceded  to  be  doubtful,  and  it  distinctly  adds  Massachusetts  to  the  list. 
It  is  too  early  yet  to  measure  the  full  force  and  significance  of  this  Republican  revolt. 
That  it  exists  at  all  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the  sagacity  of  those  who  regarded  Mr. 
Blaine's  nomination  as  injudicious.  It  brings  into  the  opposition  to  the  Republican 
ticket — not  necessarily  into  the  Democratic  party — an  intellectual  and  moral  power 
which  hitherto  has  been  among  the  most  cherished  and  useful  of  the  Republican 
resources. 

[New  Haven  Morning  News  {Rep.),  June  7.] 

Is  that  man  going  to  build  up  the  party  whose  nomination  alienates  some  of  its  most 
honored  leaders  ?  Is  the  great  army  of  Republicans  to  be  consolidated  under  a  com- 
mander who  begins  his  first  battle  with  a  corps  of  Independent  Republicans  deserting 
from  his  standard  ?  Is  his  selection  the  choice  of  a  leader  who  will  conciliate  and  unite 
rather  than  distract  and  weaken?  A  Republican  National  Convention  has  at  last  made 
one  of  those  mistakes  which  it  has  so  often  had  opportunities  to  charge  upon  its  foes. 
Whether  the  error  proves  fatal  depends  largely  on  whether  the  coming  Democratic 
National  Convention  gives  voters  only  a  choice  of  evils. 

[Chicago  Evening  Mail  (Ind.),  June  Q.  ] 

Is  James  G.  Blaine  Jay  Gould's  man  ?  Despite  his  friendly  relations  with  General 
Grant,  Mr.  Gould  did  his  utmost  to  secure  the  nomination  for  Blaine  in  1876  and  again  in 
1880.  Evidently  he  has  not  changed  his  mind  in  the  past  eight  years.  He  is  still  for 
Blaine.  Putting  this  and  that  together,  the  voters  of  the  country  have  something  upon 
which  to  cogitate.  There  are  some  forfeited  land  grants  in  which  the  people  and  Jay 
Gould  have  conflicting  interests.  Contingencies  may  at  any  time  arise  when  it  would  be 
most  convenient  for  Mr.  Gould  to  have  a  stanch  friend  in  the  Presidential  chair.  Occa- 
sionally the  veto  is  of  inestimable  value.  Perhaps  the  impression  that  Mr.  Gould  stands 
behind  him  does  the  Maine  statesman  grievous  wrong.  It  behooves  Mr.  Blaine  and  his 
friends  to  at  once  strive  to  disabuse  the  public  mind.  Otherwise  mere  suspicion  will  be 
mistaken  for  irrefragable  proof  as  the  canvass  progresses.  The  people  are  not  quite  ready 
to  elevate  Mr.  Gould  to  a  place  behind  the  throne  greater  than  the  throne  itself. 

[From  the  Christian  Union.] 
The  nominations  at  Chicago  have  brought  genuine  grief  to  a  large  and  very  intelli- 
gent  body   of  voters   inside  the  Republican  party.      They  were  never  more  ardently 
attached  to  Republican  principles  than  they  are  to-day,  and  they  stand  aloof  rom  their 
old-time  fellowships  in  the  crisis  of  a  Presidential  election  with  unfeigned  regret.      But 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  291 

they  cannot  do  otherwise,  again  and  again  in  the  last  eight  years  they  have  declared 
their  unalterable  determination  not  to  support  Mr.  Blaine  for  the  Presidency.  Their 
opposition  is  not  captious;  they  have  come  to  distrust  Mr.  Blaine  with  reluctance,  and 
have  yielded  to  doubt  only  because  they  could  not  shut  it  out;  they  have  never  endeavored 
to  impose  any  candidate  of  their  own  upon  the  party.  It  is  through  no  fault  of  theirs 
that  they  now  stand  silent  in  a  campaign  to  which  they  had  looked  forward  as  opening 
another  and  nobler  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

[From  the  Springfield  Republican.} 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  members  of  the  Republican  National  Committee  com- 
plain bitterly  that  "the  cause"  is  without  satisfactory  newspaper  advocacy.  This  is  the 
first  striking  feature  of  the  situation.  The  Neiv  York  Tribune  is  playing  light  Blaine 
tunes,  the  Commercial  Advertiser  generally  does  the  same,  and  of  the  weekly  and  illus- 
trated papers  Frank  Leslie's  may  be  counted  on  supporting  the  Republican  ticket — and 
the  trio  represents  a  total  circulation  of  perhaps  100,000  copies.  On  the  other  side  is 
ranged  almost  solidly  the  rest  of  the  press  of  the  city,  which  stands  for  a  circulation  of 
over  half  a  million  copies,  the  Times,  Herald,  Evening  Post,  Telegram,  World,  Staats 
Zeitung.  Harper 's  Weekly,  Puck  and  Sun — which  is  certainly  anti-Blaine — makingjup  the 
interesting  array.  Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  influence  of  newspaper  writing  in 
determining  the  results  of  elections,  it  will  not  be  denied  that  newspapers  reflect  to  a 
great  extent  the  local  sentiment. 

Independent  Press  on  Cleveland. 

\New  York  Herald,  July  12.] 

"The  Herald  puts  at  the  head  of  its  columns  the  Democratic  ticket  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  We  congratulate  the  Democratic  party  upon  the 
work  of  its  Convention  at  Chicago  and  the  opportunity  it  offers  to  the  American  people, 
through  a  union  of  patriotic  voters,  by  whatever  name  they  call  themselves — Democrats, 
Independents,  Labor  Reformers,  or  whatsoever  else — to  redeem  the  country  from  the 
disgrace  and  peril  to  which  the  Republichn  party  has  plotted  to  expose  it  by  the 
thoroughly  bad  nominations  of  Blaine  and  Logan. 

"Cleveland's  easy  nomination  on  the  second  ballot  yesterday  justifies  all  that  we 
have  thought  and  said  of  the  sound  judgment  and  good  sense  of  this  Convention  when 
put  to  a  decisive  test  of  choosing  what  is  vital,  sound  and  vigorous  in  the  Democracy  and 
what  is  very  much  the  other  way;  and  the  convention  is  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  fact 
that  it  has  named  the  man  who  will  be  the  next  President. 

[Harper's  Weekly,  July  19.] 
"  The  nomination  of  Governor  Cleveland  defines  sharply  the  actual  issue  of  the  Presi- 
dential election  of  this  year.  He  is  a  man  whose  absolute  official  integrity  has  never 
been  questioned,  who  has  no  laborious  and  doubtful  explanations  to  undertake,  and  who 
is  universally  known  as  the  Governor  of  New  York,  elected  by  an  unprecedented  majority 
which  was  not  partisan,  and  represented  both  the  votes  and  the  consent  of  an  enormous 
body  of  Republicans,  and  who  as  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  State  has  steadily  with- 
stood the  blandishments  and  the  threats  of  the  worst  elements  of  his  party,  and  has  justly 
earned  the  reputation  of  a  courageous,  independent,  and  efficient  friend  and  promoter  of 
administrative  reform.  His  name  has  become  that  of  the  especial  representative  among 
our  public  men  of  the  integrity,  purity,  and  economy  of  administration,  which  are  the 
objects  of  the  most  intelligent  and  patriotic  citizens.  *  *  *  *  The 

nomination  of  Governor  Cleveland  is  due  not  so  much  to  the  preference  of  his  party  as 
to  the  general  demand  of  the  country  for  a  candidacy  which  stands  for  precisely  the 
qualities  and  services  which  are  associated  with  his  name." 

\N.  Y.  Times,  July  12.] 

It  is  not  only  m  what  he  clearly  represents  but  in  what  he  distinctly  opposes  that 
Grover  Cleveland  is  strong  before  the  Ameriean  people.  His  career  has  made  him  the 
exponent  of  clean  and  honest  politics.  In  the  administration  of  public  trusts  he  has  shown 
that  he  is  superior  to  partisan  bias,  indifferent  to  such  party  interests  as  are  in  conflict  with 
official  probity  and  the  public  welfare.  He  has  been  severely  tried  in  the  important  and 
responsible  post  he  now  occupies.  He  has  resisted  the  importunities  of  designing  politi- 
cians, he  has  defeated  the  purposes  of  selfish  schemers.  All  those  members  of  his  own 
party  who  are  not  absorbed  in  private  aims  which  are  in  conflict  with  the  public  good  are 
outspoken  in  his  praise;  and  he  has  won  the  good  opinion  of  all  Republicans  who  are  not 
so  far  gone  in  partisanship  as  to  have  lost  the  power  to  commend  upright  conduct  in  a 
political  adversary. 


292  THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE. 

[The  Nation,  July  17.] 

The  nomination  of  Governor  Cleveland  by  the  Democratic  Convention  makes  the  way 
perfectly  plain  and  simple  for  all  friends  of  good  government  who  are  for  any  reason 
dissatisfied  with  the  Republican  candidate.  This  time  the  Democrats  have  made  no 
mistake. 

*  *  *  *  Cleveland  has  happily  something  far  stronger  than  the  promise  of  a 
strong  character  to  commend  him  to  the  suffrages  of  good  men  of  all  parties.  He  is  a 
tried  administrator.  One  of  the  Blaine  organs  in  its  great  agony  has  tried  to  relieve  itself 
by  calling  him  "  a  man  destitute  of  experience."  Of  one  kind  of  experience — experience 
in  political  trickery  and  manipulation,  and  in  the  art  of  making  money  for  himself  and 
his  friends  out  of  politics — he  is,  indeed,  destitute.  But  the  present  extraordinary 
political  crisis  is  due  to  the  profound  and  growing  popular  belief  that  this  kind  of  experi- 
ence is  too  common  among  our  statesmen,  and  that  the  Republican  candidate  in 
particular  is  too  rich  in  it  either  for  his  own  or  his  country's  good.  Of  the  kind  of 
experience  which  the  present  situation  in  national  affairs  most  imperatively  calls  for, 
experience  in  administration,  Cleveland  has  more  than  any  one  who  has  entered  the 
White  House  since  i860,  more  than  any  man  whom  either  party  has  nominated  within 
that  period,  except  Seymour  and  Tilden — more  than  Lincoln,  more  than  Grant,  more 
than  Hayes,  more  than  Garfield,  more  than  Arthur. 

He  laid  at  the  start  the  best  of  all  foundations  for  American  statesmanship  by  becoming 
a  good  lawyer.  He  began  his  executive  career  by  being  a  good  county  sheriff.  He  was  next 
intrusted  with  the  administration  of  a  great  city — as  severe  a  test  of  a  man's  capacity  in 
dealing  with  men  and  affairs  as  any  American  in  our  time  can  undergo.  In  both  offices 
he  gave  boundless  satisfaction  to  his  fellow-citizens  of  both  parties.  His  nomination  for  the 
Governorship  of  this  State  came  in  due  course,  and  at  a  crisis  in  State  affairs  which  very 
closely  resembled  that  which  we  are  now  witnessing  in  national  affairs.  His  election  by 
an  unprecedented  majority  is  now  an  old  story.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  revolution. 
It  was  the  first  thorough  fright  the  tricky  and  jobbing  element  in  politics  ever  received 
here.  It  for  the  first  time  in  the  experience  of  such  politicans  gave  reform  an  air  of 
reality." 

[From  the  Springfield  {Mass.)  Republican.] 

The  Democratic  party  has  come  fully  up  to  its  great  opportunity  and  placed  in 
nomination  for  the  presidency  Governor  Cleveland,  of  New  York,  with  Hendricks,  of 
Indiana,  in  the  second  place,  as  in  1876.  It  is  the  old  ticket  of  1876,  with  the  new 
reforming  Governor  of  New  York  in  place  of  the  old.  This  is  a  happy  union  of  the  avail- 
able half  of  the  ticket  of  1876,  and  of  the  new  and  vigorous  manhood  of  the  party,  with 
its  recent  experience  in  practical  administration,  and  its  just  appreciation  of  the  present 
issues.  The  nomination  of  this  ticket  gives  the  Democracy  approximately  an  even  chance 
of  carrying  the  country.     They  have  sound   candidates   upon   a   good  platform. 

[From  the  Boston  Her  aid. \ 

With  Cleveland  as  the  Democratic  candidate  the  composition  of  the  two  parties  will 
be  materially  changed.  Democrats  who  are  m  politics  for  the  spoils  and  plunder  they 
can  get  out  of  it,  will,  many  of  them  openly,  or  secretly,  go  for  Blaine.  The  better 
portion  of  the  Republican  party,  embracing  men  of  principle  and  independence,  will 
furnish  votes  for  Cleveland.  If  the  Republican  leaders  are  satisfied  with  the  exchange 
they  are  not  to  be  envied  their  capacity  for  being  pleased.  With  a  reform  candidate, 
nominated  by  the  Democratic  party  solely  because  he  is  and  has  always  been  a  reformer, 
and  is  acceptable  to  the  reform  voters,  it  looks  like  the  beginning  of  a  practical  reorgani- 
zation of  parties.  It  certainly  looks  like  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the  Republican 
party,  as  at  present  organized  and  led.  Defeat  will  do  the  Republican  party  good. 
Success  will   do   the    Democratic   party  good. 

From  the  New   York  Slaats-Zeitung. 

It  cannot  be  honestly  denied  that  a  change  of  parties  in  office,  brought  about  with- 
out revolution,  can  only  have  a  wholesome  effect.  No  party  can  continue  a  long, 
uninterrupted  possession  of  power  without  becoming  a  prey  to  corruption.  The  Repub- 
lican party  has  furnished  ample  proof  of  this.  Let  there  be  an  opportunity  offered  to  the 
people  for  a  change  of  parties  of  such  a  kind  that  the  victors  must  give  up  all  idea  of  a 
general  distribution  of  the  offices  among  their  adherents  and  the  people  will  joyfully 
agree  to  it.  The  nomination  of  Cleveland  gives  this  guarantee.  His  record  as  chief 
magistrate  of  a  large  city  and  a  great  State  has  made  him  in  the  popular  mind  the  pro- 
totype of  a  conscientious  official,  unwavering  in  principle,  and  one  who,  to  the  deep 
chagrin  of  professional  politicians,  has  always  held  the  public  interest  paramount  to  party 
considerations.    Mr.   Cleveland  will  certainly  use  the  whole  power  of  the  Presidential 


THE   INDEPENDENT   TIDAL-WAVE.  293 

office  to  purify  the  federal  service,  and  to  keep  it  pure,  and  this,  above  all,  is  expected 
by  the  people  of  the  President.  Wherever  corruption  has  taken  root  he  will  not,  as 
would  be  the  case  with  a  Republican  President,  have  to  exercise  leniency,  and  he  will 
take  proper  precautions  in  order  that  the  corruption  may  not  be  continued  under  the 
Democratic  regime.  No  earthly  power  will  be  able  to  induce  him  to  let  corruptionists 
use  the  influence  of  his  high  office. 

His  is  the  well-earned  record  of  a  personally  pure  man  and  a  practical  reformer  of 
the  public  service.  With  conscientious  zeal  he  watched  over  the  doings  of  the  legislative 
branch  of  the  State  government,  and  displayed  the  same  conscientious  care  in  scrutiniz- 
ing and  approving  its  acts.  His  reputation  in  this  respect  is  an  enviable  one .  These 
considerations  will  have  the  same  wholesome  effect  in  the  elections  as  in  the  nominating 
Convention.  The  circumstances  were  and  are  such  that  a  man  of  this  stamp  must  be 
brought  forward  ;  hence  he  has  been  given  the  preference  over  the  most  tried  leaders  of 
the  party  in  national  politics.  No  one  expects  that  he  will  be  a  partisan  leader  in 
national  politics,  but  it  is  expected  that  the  purification  of  the  public  service,  which  he 
must  undertake  as  chief  of  the  executive  branch  of  the  government,  will  have  a  beneficial 
effect  upon  the  morals  of  his  party  as  well  as  upon  all  branches  of  the  government.  It  is 
evident  that  for  this  very  reason  Mr.  Cleveland  will  be  the  antipode  of  the  Republican 
candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  personal  character  and  record  of  the  Republican 
nominee  are  such  that  they  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  under  his  administration  corrup- 
tion would  be  fostered  more  than  ever  and  would  completely  poison  the  public  service. 

The  point  has  been  forcibly  made  in  Chicago  that  Cleveland's  strength  among  the 
German-Americans  is  especially  great,  and  this  has,  as  we  learn  from  good  sources, 
contributed  essentially  toward  securing  him  the  nomination.  ******* 
The  Germans  were  recognized  in  Chicago  as  a  model  political  element,  which  holds 
reform  measures  paramount  over  all  other  considerations  and  which  cannot  be  made  to 
swerve  from  this  deep  rooted  opinion  by  party  consideration  or  that  kind  of  patriotism 
commonly  called  State  pride.  Blaine's  personal  corruption  has  principally  brought 
about  the  decided  aversion  of  the  Germans  against  him,  and  his  identification  with  the 
Prohibitionists  and  Knownothingism  has  given  additional  strength  to  this  aversion. 

The  Republican  party  has,  since  Blaine's  nomination,  entirely  lost  the  hold  it  once 
had  on  the  Germans,  which  had  been  greatly  weakened  after  the  slavery  issue  had  been 
disposed  of,  and  especially  since  the  Republican  party  became  a  synonym  for  corruption. 
Hence,  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Cleveland  will  make  it  especially  advisable  for  the 
Germans  to  join  en  masse  the  Democratic  party.  The  large  Northwestern  States,  where 
the  Germans  have  for  so  many  years  enabled  the  Republican  party  to  maintain  its 
power,  have,  under  these  circumstancee,  become  doubtful  States,  and  we  may  expect  a 
great  political  revolution  in  Indiana  and  Wisconsin,  and  perhaps  even  in  Illinois. 


294  APPENDIX. 


Appendix. 

Thomas  Jefferson's  Inaugural  Address. 

The  first  Democratic  President,  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  his  inaugural  address  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1801,  promulgated  the  fundamental  theories  of  government  and 
constitutional  construction,  which  still  constitute  the  party  creed.  They  should  be 
studied  and  preserved  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  as  an  ever-living  rebuke 
to  the  imperial  tendencies  of  the  Republican  party.     They  are  as  follows  : 

"  About  to  enter,  fellow  citizens,  on  the  exercise  of  duties  which  comprehend 
everything  dear  and  valuable  to  you,  it  is  proper  that  you  should  understand  what 
I  deem  the  essential  principles  of  our  government,  and  consequently  those  which 
ought  to  shape  its  administration.  I  will  compress  them  within  the  narrowest 
compass  they  will  bear,  stating  the- general  principle,  but  not  all  its  limitations. 

"  Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men  of  whatever  state  or  persuasion  religious 
or  political. 

' '  Peace,  commerce  and  honest  friendship  with  all  nations,  entangling  alliances 
with  none. 

"  The  support  of  the  State  governments  in  all  their  rights,  as  the  most  competent 
administrations  for  our  domestic  concerns  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti* 
republican  tendencies. 

"  The  preservation  of  the  general  government  in  its  whole  constitutional  vigor, 
as  the  sheet-anchor  of  our  peace  at  home  and  safety  abroad. 

"A  jealous  care  of  the  rights  of  election  by  the  people — a  mild  and  safe 
corrective  of  abuses  which  are  lopped  by  the  sword  of  revolution  where  peaceable 
remedies  are  unprovided. 

"Absolute  acquiescence  in  the  decisions  of  the  majority — the  vital  principle  of 
republics  from  which  there  is  no  appeal  but  to  force,  the  vital  principle  and  imme- 
diate parent  of  despotism. 

"A  well-disciplined  militia,  our  best  reliance  in  peace,  and  for  the  first  moments 
of  war,  till  the  regulars  may  relieve  them. 

"  The  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  the  military  authority. 

"Economy  in  the  public  expense,  that  labor  may  be  lightly  burdened. 

"The  honest  payment  of  our  debts  and  sacred  preservation  of  the  public  faith. 

"  Encouragement  of  agriculture  and  of  commerce  as  its  handmaid. 

"The  diffusion  of  information  and  the  arraignment  of  all  abuses  at  the  bar  of 
public  reason. 

' '  Freedom  of  religion  ;  freedom  of  the  press  ;  freedom  of  the  person  under  the 
protection  of  the  habeas  corpus  ;  and  trials  by  juries  impartially  selected. 

"  These  principles  form  the  bright  constellation  which  has  gone  before  us,  and 
guided  our  steps  through  an  age  of  revolution  and  reformation.  The  wisdom  of 
our  sages  and  the  blood  of  our  heroes  have  been  devoted  to  their  attainment.  They 
should  be  the  creed  of  our  political  faith — the  text  of  civil  instruction — the  touch- 


APPENDIX.  295 

stone  by  which  to  try  the  services  of  those  we  trust ;  and  should  we  wander  from 
them  in  moments  of  error  or  alarm,  let  us  hasten  to  retrace  our  steps  and  to  regain 
the  road  which  leads  alone  to  peace,  liberty,  and  safety." 

William  Allen's  Definition  of  Democracy. 

The  fundamental  principles  of  Democracy  were  never  better  stated  than  by 
that  distinguished  leader  ex-United  States  Senator  William  Allen,  of  Ohio. 

"Democracy  is  a  sentiment  not  to  be  appalled,  corrupted,  or  compromised. 
It  knows  no  baseness  ;  it  cowers  to  no  danger  ;  it  oppresses  no  weakness.  Fear- 
less, generous  and  humane,  it  rebukes  the  arrogant,  cherishes  honor,  and  sym- 
pathizes with  the  humble.  It  asks  nothing  but  what  it  concedes  ;  it  concedes 
nothing  but  what  it  demands.  Destructive  only  of  despotism,  it  is  the  sole  con- 
servator of  liberty,  labor  and  property.  It  is  the  sentiment  of  freedom,  of  equal 
rights  and  equal  obligations.  It  is  the  law  of  nature  pervading  the  land.  The 
stupid,  the  selfish,  and  the  base  in  spirit  may  denounce  it  as  a  vulgar  thing  ;  but 
in  the  history  of  our  race,  the  Democratic  principle  has  developed  and  illustrated 
the  highest  moral  and  intellectual  attributes  of  our  nature.  It  is  a  noble,  a  sublime 
sentiment  which  expands  our  affections,  enlarges  the  circle  of  our  sympathies,  and 
elevates  the  soul  of  man,  until  claiming  an  equality  with  the  best,  it  rejects  as 
unworthy  of  its  dignity  any  political  immunities  over  the  humblest  of  his  fellows. 
Yes,  it  is  an  ennobling  principle ;  and  may  that  spirit  which  animated  our  revolu- 
tionary fathers  in  their  contest  for  its  establishment,  continue  to  animate  us,  their 
sons,  in  the  impending  struggle  for  its  preservation." 

Samuel  J.  Tilden's  Farewell  Letter. 

New  York,  June  10,  1884, 
To  Daniel  Manning,  Chairman  of  the  Democratic  State  Committee  of  New  York  : 

Sir — In  my  letter  of  June  18,  1880,  addressed  to  the  delegates  from  the  State  of  New- 
York  to  the  Democratic  National  Convention,  I  said  : 

"  Having  now  borne  faithfully  my  full  share  of  labor  and  care  in  the  public  service, 
and  wearing  the  marks  of  its  burdens,  I  desire  nothing  so  much  as  an  honorable 
discharge.  I  wish  to  lay  down  the  honors  and  toils  of  even  quasi  party  leadership  and 
to  seek  the  repose  of  private  life. 

"In  renouncing  renomination  for  the  Presidency,  I  do  so  with  no  doubt  in  my  mind 
as  to  the  vote  of  the  State  of  New  York,  or  of  the  United  States,  but  because  I  believe 
that  it  is  a  renunciation  of  re-election  to  the  Presidency. 

"  To  those  who  think  my  renomination  and  re-election  indispensable  to  an  effectual 
vindication  of  the  right  of  the  people  to  elect  their  rulers,  violated  in  my  person,  I  have 
accorded  as  long  a  reserve  of  my  decision  as  possible,  but  I  cannot  overcome  my  repug- 
nance to  enter  into  a  new  engagement  which  involves  four  years  of  ceaseless  toil. 

"The  dignity  of  the  Presidential  office  is  above  a  merely  personal  ambition,  but  it 
creates  in  me  no  illusion.  Its  value  is  as  a  great  power  for  good  to  the  country.  I 
said  four  years  ago,  in  accepting  the  nomination  : 

"  '  Knowing  as  I  do,  therefore,  from  fresh  experience  how  great  the  difference  is 
between  gliding  through  an  official  routine  and  working  out  a  reform  of  systems  and 
policies,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  contemplate  what  needs  to  be  done  in  the  Federal 
administration  without  an  anxious  sense  of  the  difficulties  of  the  undertaking. 

"  '  If  summoned  by  the  suffrages  of  my  countrymen  to  attempt  this  work  1  shall 
endeavor  with  God's  help  to  be  the  efficient  instrument  of  their  will. 


296  APPENDIX. 

"  'Such  a  work  of  renovation,  after  many  years  of  misrule,  such  a  reform  of  systems 
and  policies,  to  which  I  would  cheerfully  have  sacrificed  all  "that  remained  to  me  of 
health  and  life,  is  now,  I  fear,  beyond  my  strength. '  " 

My  purpose  to  withdraw  from  further  public  service,  and  the  grounds  of  it,  were  at 
that  time  well  known  to  you  and  to  others  ;  and  when,  at  Cincinnati,  though  respecting 
my  wishes  yourself,  you  communicated  to  me  an  appeal  from  many  valued  friends  to 
relinquish  that  purpose,  I  reiterated  my  determination  unconditionally. 

In  the  four  years  which  have  since  elapsed,  nothing  has  occurred  to  weaken,  but 
everything  to  strengthen,  the  considerations  which  induced  my  withdrawal  from  public 
life.  To  all  who  had  addressed  me  on  the  subject,  my  intention  has  been  frankly  com- 
municated. Several  of  my  most  confidential  friends,  under  the  sanction  of  their  own 
names,  have  publicly  stated  my  determination  to  be  irreversible.  That  I  have  occasion 
now  to  consider  the  question  is  an  event  for  which  I  have  no  responsibility.  The  appeal 
made  to  me  by  the  Democratic  masses,  with  apparent  unanimity,  to  serve  them  once 
more  is  entitled  to  the  most  deferential  consideration,  and  would  inspire  a  disposition  to 
do  anything  desired  of  me  if  it  were  consistent  with  my  judgment  of  duty. 

I  believe  that  there  is  no  instrumentality  in  human  society  so  potential  in  its  influence 
upon  mankind  for  good  or  evil  as  the  governmental  machinery  for  administering  justice 
and  for  making  and  executing  laws.  Not  all  the  eleemosynary  institutions  or  the 
private  benevolence  to  which  philanthropists  may  devote  their  lives  are  so  fruitful  in 
benefits,  as  the  rescue  and  preservation  of  this  machinery  from  the  perversions  that  make 
it  the  instrument  of  conspiracy,  fraud  and  crime  against  the  most  sacred  rights  and 
interests  of  the  people. 

For  fifty  years,  as  a  private  citizen,  never  contemplating  an  official  career,  I  have 
devoted  at  least  as  much  thought  and  effort  to  the  duty  of  influencing  aright  the  action  of 
the  governmental  institutions  of  my  country,  as  to  all  other  objects.  I  have  never 
accepted  official  service  except  for  a  brief  period  for  a  special  purpose,  and  only  where 
the  occasion  seemed  to  require  from  me  that  sacrifice  of  private  preferences  to  the  public 
welfare . 

I  undertook  the  State  administration  of  New  York  because  it  was  supposed  that  in 
that  way  only  could  the  executive  power  be  swayed  on  the  side  of  the  reforms  to  which, 
as  a  private  citizen,  I  had  given  three  years  of  my  life. 

I  accepted  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency  in  1876  because  of  the  general  convic- 
tion that  my  candidacy  would  best  present  the  issue  of  Reform,  which  the  Democratic 
majority  of  the  people  desired  to  have  worked  out  in  the  General  Government,  as  it  had 
been  in  that  of  the  State  of  New  York.  I  believed  that  I  had  strength  enough  then  to 
renovate  the  administration  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  at  the  close 
of  my  term  to  hand  over  the  great  trust  to  a  successor  faithful  to  the  same  policy. 

Though  anxious  to  seek  the  repose  of  private  life,  I  nevertheless  acted  upon  the  idea 
that  every  power  is  a  trust,  and  involves  a  duty.  In  reply  to  the  address  of  the  com- 
mittee communicating  my  nomination,  I  depicted  the  difficulties  of  the  undertaking,  and 
likened  my  feelings  in  engaging  in  it  to  those  of  a  soldier  entering  battle,  but  I  did  not 
withhold  the  entire  consecration  of  my  powers  to  the  public  service. 

Twenty  years  of  continuous  mal-administration  under  the  demoralizing  influence  of 
intestine  war  and  of  bad  finance  have  infected  the  whole  governmental  system  of  the 
United  States  with  the  cancerous  growth  of  false  constructions  and  corrupt  practices. 
Powerful  classes  have  acquired  pecuniary  interests  in  official  abuses,  and  the  moral 
standards  of  the  people  hare  been  impaired.  To  redress  these  evils  is  a  work  of  great 
difficulty  and  labor,  and  cannot  be  accomplished  without  the  most  energetic,  efficient 
and  personal  action  on  the  part  of  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  Republic. 


APPENDIX.  297 

The  canvass  and  administration,  which  it  is  desired  that  I  should  undertake,  would 
embrace  a  period  of  nearly  five  years.  Nor  can  I  admit  any  illusion  as  to  their  burdens. 
Three  years  of  experience  in  the  endeavor  to  reform  the  municipal  government  of  the  City 
of  New  York,  and  two  years  of  experience  in  renovating  the  administration  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  have  made  me  familiar  with  the  requirements  of  such  a  work. 

At  the  present  time,  the  considerations  which  induced  my  action  in  1880,  have  become 
imperative.  I  ought  not  to  assume  a  task  which  I  have  not  the  physical  strength  to 
carry  through.  To  reform  the  administration  of  the  Federal  Government ;  to  realize 
my  own  ideal,  and  to  fulfill  the  just  expectations  of  the  people,  would  indeed  warrant,  as 
they  could  alone  compensate,  the  sacrifices  which  the  undertaking  would  involve.  But, 
in  my  condition  of  advancing  years  and  declining  strength,  I  feel  no  assurance  of  my 
ability  to  accomplish  these  objects.  I  am,  therefore,  constrained  to  say,  definitely,  that 
I  cannot  now  assume  the  labors  of  an  administration  or  of  a  canvass. 

Undervaluing  in  no  wise  that  best  gift  of  heaven,  the  occasion  and  the  power  some- 
times bestowed  upon  a  mere  individual  to  communicate  an  impulse  for  good  ;  grateful 
beyond  all  words  to  my  fellow  countrymen  who  would  assign  such  a  beneficient  function 
to  me,  I  am  consoled  by  the  reflection  that  neither  the  Democratic  party,  nor  the  Repub- 
lic for  whose  future  that  party  is  the  best  guarantee,  is  now,  or  ever  can  be,  dependent 
upon  any  one  man  for  their  successful  progrsss  in  the  path  of  a  noble  destiny. 

Having  given  to  their  welfare  whatever  of  health  and  strength  I  possessed,  or  could 

borrow  from  the  future,  and  having  reached  the  term  of  my  capacity  for  such  labors  as 

their  welfare  now  demands,  I  but  submit  to  the  will  of  God  in  deeming  my  public  career 

forever  closed. 

SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN. 


CONTENTS.  299 


CONTENTS. 


-<♦►- 


PAGES- 

DEMOCRATIC   PLATFORM ,  1-7 

GOV.    CLEVELAND    NOTIFIED 8-10 

GOV.    CLEVELAND'S    LETTER    OF    ACCEPTANCE H-13 

GOV.    HENDRICKS    NOTIFIED 14-16 

GOV.    HENDRICKS'    LETTER    OF   ACCEPTANCE 17 

LIFE    OF    GOV.    CLEVELAND 18-21 

PUBLIC    RECORD    OF    GOV.   CLEVELAND  22-78 

LIFE    OF    GOV.  HENDRICKS 79-82 

PUBLIC    RECORD    OF    GOV.    HENDRICKS 83-89 

RECORD    OF    BLAINE. 

The  Mulligan  Letteks 90-113 

A  Side  Speculation 113 

Press  Comments 114-116 

Blaine  the  Friend  of  Railroads 116-121 

Blaine  and  the  Miners 121-122 

A    RETURN    TO    CONSTITUTIONAL    METHODS. 

Democratic  Principles 123 

De  Tocqueville's  definition 123 

Madison's  rules  of  constitutional  construction 123-125 

Justice  Field's  protest  against  centralization 125-126 

Horatio  Seymour  on  State  and  Federal  powers 126-128 


300  CONTENTS. 

PAGES. 

Republican  Tendencies 128 

Hamilton's  theory  of  government. 128 

Blaine's  revenue-centralization  scheme 129-132 

The  Centennial  op  the  Constitution 132 


ADMINISTRATIVE    REFORM. 

Open  the  Books 138-145 

Defalcations  of  United  States  Officials 145-169 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

Republican  Tendencies 170 

Senator  Hoar's  arraignment ....   170 

Robber  Barons 170-171 

Hubbell's  letters  of  assessment 171-172 

Letters  of  the  present  campaign 172-173 

Democratic  Principles  and  Protests 173 

Senator  Pendleton's  speech 178-178 

THE  OVERTHROW  OF  MONOPOLIES. 

History  of  our  Public  Lands 179 

How  acquired. 179 

How  disposed  of 180-185 

Land  Grants  to  Railroads 185-222 

Foreign  Land  Owners 222 

Unlawful  Fencing  of  Public  Domain 223-224 

PROTECTION    OF    LABOR. 

History  of  Bills  in  48th  Congress 225 

Bureau  of  labor  statistics 225 

Prohibition  of  contract  labor 226-232 

The  eight-hour  law .   232 

Miscellaneous  bills 232-233 

The  Chinese  Question 234-241 


CONTENTS.  301 

PAGES. 

PROTECTION    OF    PERSONAL    LIBERTY. 

Republican  Tendencies 242 

Mr.  Joyce's  bill 242-243 

The  Iowa  liquor  law 244-247 

Mr.  Blame's  sentiments 247 

Democratic  Principles 247 


PROTECTION    OF    AMERICAN    CITIZENS    ABROAD. 

Republican  Neglect 248 

Case  of  O'Mahoney 248-249 

Case  of  McSweeney 250-255 

Interesting  correspondence 255-257 

Case  of  O'Connor 257 

Democratic  Principles  and  Protests 258 

Senator  Voorhees'  speech 258-260 

Governor  Cleveland's  sentiments 260-262 

OUR    FOREIGN    POLICY. 

Importance  op  the  Subject 263 

Spanish-American  commerce. 263-264 

Dangerous  Policy  of  Republican  Party 265 

Mr.  Blaine's  officiousness  265-266 

The  Chili-Peru  affair 266-272 

Boundary  between  Mexico  and  Guatemala 272-274 

Conservative  Policy  op  Democratic  Party 274 

Sentiments  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 274 

HONEST  MONEY  FOR  HONEST  LABOR. 

Mr.  Hewitt's  Speech 275-279 

THE    INDEPENDENT    TIDAL    WAVE. 

Its  Significance 280 

Mr.  Codman's  Address 280-283 

Mr.  Curtis'   Address 283-285 


302  CONTENTS. 

PAGES. 

Me.  Schurz's  Addbess 285-287 

Independent  Press  on  Blaine 287-291 

Independent  Press  on  Cleveland 291-293 

APPENDIX. 

Thomas  Jefferson's  Inaugural  Address 294 

William  Allen's  Definition  of  Democracy 295 

Samuel  J.  Tilden's  Farewell  Letter 295-297 


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